


Beyond the Veil

by Tallihensia



Series: The Veil Universe [1]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Epic, Future Fic, M/M, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-23
Updated: 2009-11-23
Packaged: 2017-10-14 03:43:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 46,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Lex's dreams, Lex loves Clark, and Clark loves him. But what lies beyond the dreams?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beyond the Veil

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Only mine in my dreams. ;-) This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Very mild bondage. Sortof.  
>  Important - While all sex in the story is consensual, certain events during the story _might be problematic for people who have rape triggers_. I am probably being overly cautious about this, but if you would like to know more details before reading the story, please ask.
> 
>  **Notes:** Future Fic. AU past mid-season 3. Takes place seven years later (so 10 years past the initial meeting). Post-rift. Note that AU **means** AU - nothing from later seasons is at all canon here, only the stuff we've seen up through mid-3.
> 
> This story is seriously huge. If you would like to read this story divided into chapters (so you can get some sleep between them... ^^;), it is also posted in eight chapters [on my livejournal](http://community.livejournal.com/tallihensia/338846.html).

## Beyond the Veil

 

_Lex. Lex..._

Mostly asleep, Lex's lips turned up happily at hearing an echo of the once familiar voice. It had been years since they'd been friends, but still, the reflexes lingered. "Clark," he murmured in response, turning over and settling himself in a more comfortable position.

_Lex! You can hear me?_

"Of course I can." Lex had been walking that fine line between sleep and dreams; wondering if this night would be a long one, but some dreams came upon one unguarded and made their own way in. It seemed that tonight, he would dream of Clark.

With the ease of long practice, Lex detached from his body in bed and moved into his dreamscape. He'd spent years developing it, something to coax him away from the myriad of things he had to think about during the day and enable him to just concentrate on the night. Allowing his body to get some rest while his active mind wandered. Allowing him escape while still being in one place.

The dreamscape he chose to step into now was a garden grotto, much like the one on his roof, though enhanced by the power of fantasy. Silvery moonlight lit the area, never too dark and always gleaming. The walkways were laid out in curving paths between rich green growths and brilliant flowering plants, no dead leaves or dried up flowers here. In the center was a gazebo with a soft couch and a table, and a cabinet that he could open for anything he wanted. The couch also turned into a bed under the right conditions.

The right condition stepped in, looking around him with wide eyes. "Wow, Lex... this is amazing."

"Of course it is." Lex poured himself a drink and watched Clark with glittering eyes. Tonight, his obsession was dressed in reporter clothes, with the ill-fitting suit, the almost-groomed hair, and the heavy eyeglasses. In real life, Lex didn't hate the disguise; he understood the necessity. There were aspects of it that were even cute -- not that the real Clark Kent would appreciate his enemy telling him that. In Lex's fantasies, though, he could say it was cute all he wanted to and his dream Clarks would blush and stammer at him. Though what Lex loved best about the outfit was getting Clark out of it.

Clark was a more regular visitor to his dreamscapes than Lex would ever admit out loud. In the dreamscape, all things changed, and outside rules were to be put aside. Enemies, friends, or lovers... There was no other place that Lex could be himself and still have his dreams come true.

Putting his drink down, the glass vanished unnoticed as Lex approached Clark. The reporter was studying a yellow-orange spiky flower, looking at it puzzledly, as if it reminded him of something.

"Mace Pagoda, Mimetes stokoei. Extinct since 1967." Lex slipped his arms around Clark, nuzzling the back of his neck with a contented murmur.

Clark jumped three feet, dislodging Lex and spinning to face him. Behind the glasses, his eyes were wide with surprise.

Lex blinked a bit himself. It had been some time since a fantasy had done something so unexpected. Apparently, his mind had decided he needed to stop directing things so much. He relaxed and decided to go with it. "Something wrong, Clark?"

"You. Ah. I. Uh..." Clark floundered, his eyes still wide.

It was really adorable and Lex realized his unconscious was right -- he needed something fresh and different. "It's been awhile since I seduced an innocent farmboy," Lex mused.

Yet this wasn't really the right setting for it. With a wave of his hand, the dreamscape changed around them. Gazebo walls melted into sturdy farmyard barn walls. The plants into the miscellaneous things that Clark had kept scattered in his loft. The couch into an old rattier one, yet sill comfortable; Lex refused to settle for anything less in his dreams. The moonlight lightened, with the sky through the loft window changing from silvery black into reds and yellows, oranges and pinks as a gorgeous sunset displayed. Lex was rather proud of the sunset. He'd spent a long time working on it, getting it just right.

Clark's clothes also changed, morphing from the reporter suit into his old t-shirt and red flannel on top of it. His jeans worn and stained with work. Lex didn't change the fundamental Clark, though, not touching age or appearance. Even after all these years, Lex was a bit wary of under-age seduction, even in his dreams. Placement-wise, Clark was standing by the window, facing the sunset. He turned around slowly in a complete circle, mouth agape as he processed the change of their surroundings.

The robe Lex had been wearing shifted into a loosely buttoned, long-sleeved, light lavender fine cotton shirt and black slacks. He was wearing his old driving gloves and was standing mid-way on the steps up to the loft. Lex paused a moment to admire the picture of Clark framed by the sunset. Though Clark was a little overshadowed... Lex toned the sunset down, muting the colours into a fading glory; highlighting the handsome farmboy.

"Clark," he purred, stripping off his driving gloves slowly, "How nice to find you here."

In the loft, Clark turned around again, looking at him, at the surroundings. "Uh, Lex, we have to talk."

"Do we?" Lex stepped up the last stair and paused again. Clark was just so **beautiful** like this. Home in his native element, without the trappings and disguises, wide-eyed and innocent... Lex fell in love all over again. It never got old, remembering first love. Well, second love, technically. Or third. But who was counting? First that he'd never gotten over.

"This isn't real, Lex," Clark approached him with a cautious look in his eye.

"No, say it isn't so!" Lex breathed out, mocking his dream, even as he started forward to meet him.

Clark backpedaled, "I mean it's not a dream, Lex!" He hit the barn wall with a thump.

"I only wish it, but ten years too late." Lex paused, sorrowing for the missed chances. However, that was what dreams were for, to visit paths not taken. Lex reached out, touching Clark's cheek softly, tracing the strong jawline. "Clark, just go with it."

"I mean, it is a dream, your dream, but I'm---" Clark's words were cut off as Lex leaned forward and kissed him.

It was just a closed-mouth kiss, nothing like Lex's best effort, yet under Lex's hands, Clark was shuddering, trembling in reaction, even as he relaxed into the kiss.

When Lex pulled back, Clark's green eyes were shaded dark, his lips red. Clark reached a hand up to touch his lips curiously, tracing them in wonder.

It was almost more than Lex could take, watching that. "Clark, I've missed you," he said, all his longing and need and loneliness in his voice, and he stepped forward, not to kiss Clark this time, but to embrace him; laying his head upon Clark's strong chest, his arms around the sturdy body, listening to the thumping of his heart, of both their hearts.

Hesitantly, Clark's arms came up around Lex to hold him too, and he felt Clark's head tuck down against his own, protectively, gently. "Oh hell," Clark whispered, the sound drifting over Lex's head. "It's just a dream, right? God, Lex..." There was a soft sigh. "Lex, I've missed you too."

Lex tucked himself in closer, letting himself be held, enjoying the feel of the strong arms around him; safe within them. Clark pressed his lips against the top of Lex's head softly, not quite a kiss, but more than a friend's gesture. Lex purred to feel it, and also to hear Clark's heartbeat speeding up. The first step to seduction was always to let the innocent go first. Not to mention that it felt **good** to be held like this. Lex could count on two hands the number of times he and Clark had hugged, and it was always just as friends. Too short, not enough of it. Back then, he'd been careful. Too careful.

With slow, sure movements, Lex transferred one of his hands up to Clark's hair. Lex played lightly in the rich locks, combing, twisting through but careful not to tangle, trailing his fingers over Clark's nape and back up again. Lex kept this up until he could feel Clark's body shuddering in reaction, a hardness forming along his thigh.

Pulling back without dislodging their arms around each other, Lex gazed into Clark's eyes. The lids were closed half-way, dark-green irises staring through at him with heat and confusion evident within. The beautiful thick lips started to part and Lex slipped upward, taking those lips in his, licking barely against the inside edge before darting his tongue back, then repeating it again, and again.

With a groan that Lex could feel inside his mouth, Clark returned the kiss, his tongue following Lex's back into Lex's mouth where he explored. Lex encouraged him, twining around Clark's tongue with his own, teasing him in short measures and then deepening it, tilting his head back and making Clark follow him. The move also arched Lex's back, bringing their groins in closer contact and he gasped at the jolt that went through his body.

Clark gasped as well. Abruptly disengaging from the kiss, he threw his head against the wall, even as his hands tightened around Lex. One hand moved down, hesitantly settling just at Lex's waist, fingers twitching as if he'd like to move lower, but Clark didn't take that step.

Lex forced his eyes open to see the expanse of skin in front of him, then he leaned forward to lick at Clark's neck. Clark tasted of sweat and skin and nothing else. No cologne for this farmboy. Just honest self. Like a cat, Lex groomed Clark, sweeping his tongue up and down, tracing the veins and the muscles, nipping gently at the soft folds of skin, hearing the soft yelp as encouragement and suckling with more fervor.

"Lex..." Clark moaned his name with what sounded like amazement.

Looking up, Lex's heart contracted with the sight that was presented to him. His dream from when he was young, a farmboy all spread out and waiting for him. Head thrown back, eyes closed, skin moist with sweat just from the bit that they'd been doing. Legs braced, spread apart, hips tilted slightly. Back braced against the wall for support. And too many clothes. But the overall effect... "Beautiful," Lex murmured, running a hand over Clark's face, tracing the full lips. He slid his other hand under Clark's t-shirt and worked his way up. When he got to the chest, Lex played with the nipples there.

With a movement that had to have been born out of super-speed, Lex found himself spun around and slammed against the wall. Almost roughly, but with a hand bracing him so it didn't hurt much. His shirt was torn open and lips fastened on his collarbone. Lex cried out, bucking against the strong body. A hand against his hip and one on his chest held him still. "Clark!" he cried, his need vocalized.

At a speed almost as fast, Lex was abandoned.

After a couple of moments of stillness, feeling the air brush around his body and his blood roaring uselessly through his veins, Lex opened his eyes. He found Clark by the other wall, near the couch, staring at him with wide, wide eyes. Clark was trembling all over. Innocence returned.

"It's okay," Lex soothed, walking over with slightly unsteady steps to his dream. So perfect, so good. Too good for him, but in a fantasy, anything was possible.

"Lex, we can't do this," Clark protested with those emerald green eyes turned towards him, longing and denial within.

"Of course we can." Lex gently ran his hand over Clark's face again, tracing the cheekbones. He loved Clark's face. So expressive, so strong, so full of life.

Involuntarily, Clark tilted his head into the touch. "We can't," he breathed, even as his eyes started to close again.

"We can," Lex breathed back, his mouth close to Clark's ear, touching it gently with his lips.

"Lex, this isn't **real** ," Clark made another try with his voice, even as his hands drifted back to Lex's waist.

"Of course it's not. That's why we can." If this was real, Lex would have taken all night. Lex would have moved so slowly, Clark wouldn't have known what was coming until they were in the middle of it. Lex would have spent hours on kisses alone, mapping out the body he loved.

If it was real, nothing would have happened. Back then, nothing had, because Clark was fifteen and Lex loved him too much to seduce him. But this wasn't real, and Lex really wanted to get to the good parts.

Cheating a bit, Lex ran his fingers inside a tear in Clark's t-shirt that hadn't been there a moment before. He let his fingers draw downwards, extending the tear without the force that would have been needed for a real cotton shirt. When he reached Clark's waist, he dipped his fingers inside the jeans, lightly teasing the skin there.

Clark bucked up, crying out wordlessly. His jeans were tight, a bulge against the denim.

Lex pressed his mouth to Clark's, greedily swallowing the cry. Pulling his hand out from the tight jeans, Lex moved around to the small of Clark's back, encouraging the forward thrusts that the farmboy was making. Lex wasn't sure if Clark even knew what he was doing, the movements were so unstudied.

"God, Lex!" Clark was almost sobbing, his eyes tightly shut as he clung to Lex.

This wasn't originally in his plans, however Lex thought it would be better for their future pleasure if some of the edge was taken off now. He slipped his hand between them, and the next time Clark kissed him, Lex pressed hard against the bulge in Clark's jeans, delivering pressure where pressure was needed.

With a startled cry, Clark pulled his mouth away from Lex's, and then slumped against the wall, sliding gracelessly down. Lex followed, gently laughing with delight. "You are the most amazing person ever, Clark," he said, running his hands all over the bared chest, along Clark's neck, along his face, stroking through his hair. All the things he'd always denied himself years back. Now here, his for the taking. Though floor sex didn't really appeal to him.

A slight shift in the dreamscape, and they were lying now on the ratty, comfortable couch, which was mysteriously also big enough for the both of them. Lex opened Clark's jeans button, and slid down the zipper, able to now that the pressure was off. With another shift of dream, they also weren't messy, because Lex didn't really like messy.

Shaded green eyes watched him. "You really want this," Clark half-asked, half-said, wonderingly.

"Always have," Lex agreed comfortably. Shoes were mysteriously gone, so there was no impediment in pulling Clark's pants off, and his underwear too. Clark helped, movements automatic, eyes following Lex's hands.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Clark pushed Lex's shirt off his shoulders, the ripped silk fluttering down.

"You were too young, and then it was too late." Lex helped as they took off his slacks, gasping as Clark ran his hand over Lex's hard dick.

"And if this was real, you'd still never say anything because you don't." Clark leaned down and licked experimentally at Lex's dick, making Lex squirm and whimper.

Raising his head, Clark looked up the length of Lex's body, meeting his eyes. "But here, you'll tell me anything I want to know, because it's not real."

"Anything," Lex agreed, one hand trailing through Clark's hair, the other gripping the sheet covering the couch.

"God, lead me not into temptation," Clark made it sound like a real prayer before he swallowed Lex down.

Lex cried out, surprise lending weight to the pure pleasure of being encased, warm, wet, tight, strong... he tried not to, but he couldn't help bucking up, trying to get more of it.

Clark choked and backed off.

"You have a gag reflex?" Lex asked in amazement. That had never made it into his fantasies before, though it did lend a certain verisimilitude to it.

"Apparently," Clark said, eyeing Lex's dick like it was a problem to be solved. He leaned over again, this time only engulfing the top part, his hand on the base.

This time, Lex managed not to move, though it was hard. It felt so good... "You don't have to," he said, half-heartedly.

Clark swirled his tongue around and then pulled back, running his hand instead up and down the shaft, "Of course I do, it's your fantasy, right?"

Lex pulled Clark's hair sharply, not hurting him, but drawing him off. He rolled over, away from Clark, then slipped off the couch and stood up. "My fantasy is never about doing anything you don't want," he said stiffly.

"Um," Clark propped himself up on an elbow and looked at Lex. "So if I didn't want to..."

Lex turned and headed for the stairs, fighting down disappointment. He'd known this was going too well.

A third of his dreams were sabotaged by his subconscious, tempting him to break his boundaries. Lex's morals might be shaky sometimes, especially compared to people raised in households that taught good from wrong from day one, but Lex knew there were some things you just didn't do. And the lines between fantasy and reality were sometimes thin. If he pushed the envelope too much in his dreams and the dreams were wonderful and fulfilling... then what would stop him from doing it in real life? For somebody as powerful as he, that slope was one easily slipped.

So Lex walked away from his perfect dream. It was hard, but he'd had plenty of practice. It was, after all, what he used to do all the time in Smallville.

"Wait!" Clark suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way. "Lex, what the fuck?"

Lex blinked. His Clarks almost never swore. "What do you mean?" Inside, his heart beat a quick staccato of hope.

"You're going to give up, just like that?" Clark sounded incredulous. "I get off, you get a half-assed blow-job that isn't even finished, and you just WALK AWAY? I thought this was supposed to be your dream!?"

With a soft laugh, Lex shook his head. "We only got the edge off you; I wouldn't call that a fulfilling experience." Then he reached out and touched Clark's cheek. "I love you so much, Clark." Lex took another step forward and put himself back in Clark's arms. This was where he really wanted to be. With an automatic reaction, Clark enfolded him, containing Lex safe in his embrace.

The angry Clark and the outbursts were just right; this was something his subconscious had perfected. "I tried making a milk-sop Clark once. Wouldn't let you talk back, no smart-assed remarks, no protests; just pure loving with sappy endearments. It felt like making love to a blow-up doll. I'm a little too used to our arguments to ever have a night without them." Lex closed his eyes, tucking his head tightly into Clark's chest. "You can be who you're meant to be, in my dreams, and I won't ever change that. If I changed it, it wouldn't be you, and there would be no point to loving you."

"God, Lex," Clark groaned above him. Gentle strong fingers lifted Lex's head until they were looking at each other. The green eyes were full of wonder and desire, studying him intently.

"You keep saying that," Lex deadpanned, "I don't think it means what you think it does."

Clark burst out a laugh. "Don't. Don't you **dare** quote Princess Bride at me, Lex, or I won't be responsible for what happens."

Lex resisted for exactly 1.5 seconds. "As you wish," he said.

In less time than that, he was whisked off the stairs and back onto the couch, with Clark on top of him, kissing him frantically.

A little stunned, Lex lay there and let himself be devoured. This was more initiative than the Farmboy dreams normally took. Though RedK Clarks or Supermen dreams were usually highly dominant. This Clark was somewhere between Farmboy and Superman; as mixed as Lex's desires were. Lex moaned as lips found one of his nipples, licking and kissing it. Hands were roaming his chest and sides, hesitating periodically where there was muscle instead of curves, showing an unfamiliarity with exploring a man's body that was all the more intriguing. The lips moved further south, taking their time, yet steady on their route. Lex reached an arm above his head and gripped the side of the couch tightly. He was gasping, trying not to twist and dislodge Clark from his exploration, but he needed to **move** , his body was so aflame. His other hand rested on Clark's head, trying not to grip the smooth black hair but needing to feel it, to feel **him**.

As Clark moved that final distance down, Lex cried out, arching his back and bending the leg that wasn't trapped by Clark's body. He tightened his grip in Clark's hair as Clark swallowed him again, this time being careful not to go too deep.

Then Lex hissed, "Teeth! Clark, watch the teeth."

"Sorry..." Clark returned to his focus, this time carefully not scraping and doing more with lips and tongue and motion. His head bobbed between Lex's legs as he entered the age old up and down rhythm. One hand he kept on Lex's pelvis, bracing him and holding Lex down. With the other, he explored Lex's balls, tugging them and fingering behind them. There was an element of newness to all that Clark was doing, which just made Lex wilder beneath him.

"Clark! Oh God! Alien deities! Whatever, Clark, just... Clark!" Lex cried out like he never did in real life, allowed the freedom in his fantasies to just let himself go.

Clark sucked harder, and moved his hand to that area behind the balls, pressing there.

Lex came, feeling his release even as he arched one more time then sighed back down, his whole body limp and satiated.

With a choking cough, Clark sat back and then spat over the edge of the couch, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Lex opened his eyes to watch, amused.

"If this is a fantasy, shouldn't it taste like nectar, or something?" Clark grimaced, even as his eyes tracked over Lex's nude body. A blush rose on his skin, starting off pale pink and darkening even as Lex watched.

"Come here," Lex extended his arms out to Clark in invitation. An invitation that was accepted as Clark crawled up and leaned over Lex, kissing him deeply. Lex swept his tongue through Clark's mouth, removing the bitterness and leaving honey in its place.

Clark pulled back, blinking, "Okay, that was just weird."

"You wanted sweetness," Lex reminded him. He traced a pattern down Clark's side. The youth was hard again, the earlier release just having taken the edge off, but not blunting desire.

"I want..." Clark hesitated, than kissed Lex again instead of saying something. There was something of a desperation in the kiss, something bitter as well as sweet.

When they pulled back, Lex sighed happily. This really was a perfect dream, Clark in his arms while they lay in the loft entwined together. He knew they weren't quite done -- part of a seduction dream was to make sure Clark had the most amazing sexual experience ever, but he was feeling tired. "Just give me a moment," he murmured. "A moment, and then it'll be your turn. I promise you, Clark. It will be all about you..."

Lex drifted off, asleep in warm safe arms.

... ... ...

 

The next day, Lex had a hard time concentrating through work. That wasn't how it was supposed to go. A nice fantasy at night, completely divorced from reality, and it left his mind clear and ready for business the next day. Yet several times, he found himself picking up the phone to call Clark before he remembered and put it down again. He suspected it was from the guilt he felt about falling asleep on Clark before he'd gotten the youth off. But that was patently ridiculous since Clark was only a dream, and he wasn't a youth anymore.

In the real world, in this time period, Clark barely spoke to Lex anymore. Interviews where they were both polite and distant. Every now and again, Superman would help after a lab explosion, getting scientists and researchers out to safety and then yelling at Lex about safety regulations and carelessness. Which Lex generally deserved, but safety was so **slow**. If the scientists didn't mind taking risks, he usually didn't either. Lex also didn't monitor his people as much as he should, giving them free rein on their experiments and research. Which had some amazing results... and the occasional disaster.

Then there were the other rescues. The ones where Lex got himself in so deep, he couldn't get out and an enemy, or sometimes a friend, would try to kill him. Somehow, always, Lex survived. Sometimes it was a miracle, with none to see. Other times, it was more obvious. Himself being pulled out of the way, or picked up and flown to safety. Clinging to the strong secure blue and red, while he was yelled at again, this time for compromising his own safety. Which wasn't usually Lex's fault. Could he help it if every woman he married ended up trying to kill him? Well, maybe. But then he wouldn't ever be rescued again.

His secretary put a pile of papers in front of him and asked for the earlier ones she'd dropped off. Lex handed her a slim set and apologized for not getting to the others yet. With a sigh, he started reading through the reports, giving his approval for some, or sending others back for more review.

But his gaze kept turning to the golden planet outside, and his mind to a certain reporter.

... ... ...

 

That night, tossing and turning in bed, Lex was reluctant to go into his dreamscape. He wasn't sure if he wanted to. Earlier, Lex been picking up and putting down his laptop, pacing between the computer and the window and the couch, feeling more and more tired, but unable to just lie down and go to sleep. But once in bed, he couldn't sleep. He wanted his fantasy so much that he knew there was something wrong. Fantasies were something to pass the time, an obsession, yes, but never to be confused with the real world. Tonight, though... Lex longed for his dreams. And that scared him.

Finally, Lex told himself he was being ridiculous and forced himself to lie still within his bed, divorcing his muscles from active moments so the body could rest. With a sigh, Lex stepped into the dreamscape.

In the grotto, the moonlight shimmered silver, as always, and Lex could feel himself relaxing, secure in the world he'd built.

"There you are!"

Lex's heart gave a leap as he turned to face Clark. Clark was coming to him from one of the garden paths, his steps light and a grin on his expressive face. Clark was dressed again in the reporter clothes, his glasses slightly askew, as if he'd been taking them on and off. His tie was also askew, but that was normal for the reporter.

It was a dream, Lex reminded himself. Only a dream. "Clark," he breathed, feeling a smile spreading across his own face.

"Oh man, you wouldn't **believe** the day I've had!" Clark threw himself into one of the patio chairs near Lex, all loose limbs and careless grace. The pose didn't match the reporter suit so well, but it did the youth Lex had dallied with the night before. This was the same dream, continued to another night. Unsurprising, considering how much Lex had thought about it all day. His longing, fulfilled. Lex wondered bitterly how messed up this was going to get. When everything was right... there was usually something wrong.

Walking to the drink cabinet, Lex poured some for himself and Clark. He handed a filled glass to Clark, brushing the other's hand as he gave him the glass.

"Thanks," Clark blushed as he watched Lex's hand move away. Clark twitched his fingers slightly as if he wanted to trace where Lex had touched him. Absently, Clark sipped at his drink, then he paused and turned his attention more fully to it. "This... it's fruity, but I don't recognize... what is it?"

"Ambrosia," Lex replied, settling into a chair next to Clark's. "It's whatever you want it to be." His own had distinct amounts of alcohol, but it changed on the next sip as he tried to figure out what Clark was drinking. A soft drink, not so much on the carbonation but very high on the sugar. The taste component was a type of tropical fruit... papaya? No... guava or kiwi juice, he thought, with something else in it. It was the sort of drink a younger Clark had probably enjoyed. Lex wondered where his subconscious had pulled it from.

Clark avidly watched Lex, eyes obviously wandering over the lean body, even as he tried to make small talk. "Last night, after you fell asleep and I was forced out, I went back to Lois to see what luck she'd had, which wasn't much, of course. But man, you should have **heard** her when she found out it was you I'd contacted!" Clark mimed rubbing at his ears. "And after **that** tirade was finished, then she wanted to know if I'd told you and what took so long." Clark blushed. "Which I didn't tell her, but my hedging wasn't going over very well, and when I said something about being too tied up to tell you, she took that **literally** and then I had to spend the next hour telling her I wasn't trapped in some torture dream of yours but I couldn't tell her **what** we were doing, so it wasn't coming off very convincing."

Clark kept rambling, but Lex's mind was focusing on the last part. "Bondage? We could do that." It sounded like fun, actually. And would be a good way to avoid what happened last night.

Lex stood up, vanishing his glass and holding a hand out to Clark. "I did promise you a night that would be all about you," Lex purred, sweeping his eyes up and down Clark's body as the younger man automatically stood up as well. Lex caressed the hand he held, raising it to his lips in a gentle kiss. "Consider it my apology for leaving you last night."

"Uh, I didn't mean..." Clark's breathing stuttered and then deepened, his eyes dilating. He gulped down the last of his drink, expression suddenly changing as he glanced at it. Lex figured it had shifted from the fruit drink to something very alcoholic.

"Come, my heart," Lex murmured, drawing Clark into his arms and shifting the world around them. When they emerged, it was to golden lighting, flickering by candlelight in corners. Instead of a green grotto, they were in a plum-velveted room, with a tall canopy bed in the middle, sturdy wooden beams for the supports, dark purple silk for the covers. There were cabinets and shelves along the walls, and a barred window let the moonlight through. Clark held onto Lex's hand tightly, wide-eyed at everything around them.

Lex was hard put to suppress his laughter at Clark's amazement. This was, as far as bondage went, fairly mild. More fantasy bondage than the real thing, which was appropriate enough for a dream. Sometimes he went for stronger stuff, however, his partner also had to be ready for it. Those Clarks were usually the ones who had done things in that lost Metropolis summer that Lex himself had at that age. Those Clarks remembered what they'd done, and enjoyed subduing Lex. The real Clark, as far as Lex had been able to trace, hadn't **actually** done any of that. Other than the robberies and the expensive spending and all the club-hopping, Clark's real summer had been fairly tame. Evidence of how good and true Clark was, even let loose on his impulses. But in Lex's fantasies... sometimes Clark was darker.

This current Clark was touching the chains hanging from the canopy at the end of the bed with curious fingers, his eyes tracking to the similar cuffs and chains at the top of the bed, and wandering with a frown to the whips lining the wall. Seeing the frown, Lex decided they wouldn't try that yet. Probably just a little restraint, maybe some blindfold. Except he loved seeing those green eyes so much... maybe not. He'd see what Clark responded to.

Moving behind Clark, Lex stroked his shoulders, leaning in to nuzzle the back of his neck, playing with the silky dark stands of hair. Clark let out a small choked noise and shifted into the movements. Lex kept up his ministrations, gradually easing Clark out of the ill-fitting jacket and dropping it to the floor.

At the sound, Clark seemed to revive a bit, turning to face Lex. "Lex... we should talk." He sounded only half-hearted about it, and his eyes kept wandering down the open expanse of Lex's shirt where it was unbuttoned. Clark raised his hands and started undoing the other buttons.

"All talk and no play, makes Dick a dull boy," Lex said wickedly, returning the favor and working on Clark's shirt. "And we certainly don't want that..." Lex swept his hand down, lightly tracing the bulge in Clark's pants and not incidentally making it harder.

Clark drew in his breath and held it, closing his eyes tightly. "Lex," he gasped out, somewhat desperately, "I can't---"

"You can," Lex interrupted, pushing Clark with gentle movements towards the bed. He didn't know what Clark thought he couldn't, but whatever it was, it was in the way of this dream. "We both can," he said even softer.

Pushing Clark down on the bed, Lex sat next to him and kissed him while continuing to work on the shirt. Once he had all the buttons undone, Lex moved his kisses down Clark's bare chest. The reporter might not be on the farm anymore, but he certainly kept his muscles well-toned and firm. Which made this exploration all the more fun. Abs... one, two, three... Lex slid over to the other side, not deterred by Clark's soft laughter shaking his body. Four, five, six. Now up again because the nipples were getting cold and lonely. And the collarbone was always worthy of another trip.

Clark turned them over, moving on top and interrupting Lex's attentions with kisses of his own. Lex let himself enjoy it for awhile, then reluctantly pushed Clark off. It was a rather hard task, as focused and strong as Clark was. Lex finally cheated and thinned himself out, slipping between the sheet and Clark and reappearing standing next to the bed.

With a suddenness that took Lex by surprise, Clark also was standing, his eyes darting around, noting Lex's position and then continuing to look for danger.

"That was me," Lex said mildly. "You seem to have forgotten that tonight was supposed to be about **you**." He deepened his voice, dropping down into the seductive tones that rarely failed him, "If you want what's bad for you... back on the bed, Farmboy." Lex emphasized the order with a hand on Clark's chest.

There was a long pause while Clark stared at Lex, as if trying to decide something. However his heartbeat was strong and fast under Lex's hand, and there was never any real doubt of the final outcome. Clark turned back to the bed with an audible gulp and crawled on. Before anything else could deter them, Lex walked around the side of the bed and pulled Clark's wrists up to the cuffs, the restraints closing with first one snick and then another. Lex ran a brief finger around them to make sure velvet was covering all the skin areas rather than metal, then he walked back to the foot of the bed where he repeated the procedure with Clark's ankles. Then he paused to admire the picture.

Clark, spread out on dark violet sheets, his bare chest gleaming as the candlelight rippled over it, his arms open in invitation, his legs spread out in a similar pattern. Pants still on, but that was a minor concern and easily taken care of. It was a picture worthy of a painting. A little proper framing, a few dark shadows and Lex might even be able to hang it in his office with no one the wiser as to the subject or the intent.

"So you're just going to leave me here?" Clark teased, testing the chains slightly as he figured out his range of movement.

"One more thing," Lex said. For Clark, there was always at least one extra element that he didn't use with other guests. Not that he had a lot of other guests. For as many women and discreet men as Lex went through on the outside, inside the dreamscape, Lex didn't invite many in. Clark, of course, was a given. And then there were the times that Clark invited himself... just like he always did at the mansion. Lex had rather liked how free Clark was in his home, especially when he saw how formal Clark got when visiting anybody else. Admittedly, the later years the visits were more angry than friendly... but even as an enemy, Clark never once lost the ease of acquaintance.

Lex walked to the wrist shackle and leaned over to snap a gem into the fancy ironwork connecting the shackle with the chain. The other three popped into place at the same time on the other cuffs. Once in, the four gems glowed a fluorescent green, contrasting with the yellow candlelight.

As the crystals snapped into place, Clark twisted his head to look, eyes widening, and then he struggled in earnest, heaving with all his strength against the chains. "You bastard!" he snarled, a look of betrayal and hurt in his green eyes that matched the color of the gems.

Lex stepped back in surprise. "Clark, what...?"

"What the fuck are **those**!?" Clark threw himself to one side, but didn't break through the chains.

Lex could have taken the chains off with a thought, but he suspected he'd never get Clark back into them ever again if he did. He sighed in annoyance. "You're going to hurt yourself if you don't stop struggling. The restraints aren't meant for **real** holding. The velvet is going to come off if you keep that up."

That actually did pause Clark's efforts. "You're worried about my **hurting** myself!? When you have kryptonite strapped to my wrists!"

"And ankles. But it's a fucking **dream** , Clark -- those gems aren't hurting you!" No dream was perfect. Though usually it was the Supermen that reacted so violently to the kryptonite -- almost never Farmboys. Lex really wasn't sure what to make of this version of his obsession. It was probably a Reporter... but the Reporter hated Lex so much that even in dreams, he rarely made it to the sex-level; too hard to make a realistic scenario. When he did, it was angry, confrontational sex, not conversation and gentle feelings such as this Clark had shown earlier.

Clark's mouth opened and closed a couple of times and then he twisted to look at the gems again, first one wrist and then the other. He pulled more lightly on the chains, and then tugged harder. The betrayed look changed into a puzzled frown as he glanced back to Lex.

Lex sighed again, more hurt than he liked to admit even to himself by the expression in those eyes. It was like being 24 all over again and watching their friendship fall apart. Funny how three fairly short years seemed more important than any of the seven since then or all the 21 before. "The point of bondage is so you aren't responsible for yourself. If you were concentrating on not breaking the chains, or **did** break them... well, so much for that bit of fun." Lex touched the glowing green crystal. "This is modified so it takes away your strength without harming you."

Clark was settling, but still uneasy, "I thought bondage was about pain."

"Sometimes it is," Lex admitted. "Not tonight, though." Rarely, for him. He'd seen enough real pain to not think of it much like pleasure. Lex closed his eyes, trying not to remember.

A soft touch on his finger recollected him to the now. Clark had managed to twist his hand around in the cuff so his fingers brushed against Lex's.

Lex stepped back. "I can take them off, if you want." So this dream would be deferred. That was nothing new for Lex. One way or another, his dreams were always dust in the end.

One shaky breath in, and then another, and Clark exhaled just as shakily. He pulled lightly on the chains, experimenting. Then he hesitantly asked, "Why kryptonite? Couldn't you just make it so I couldn't break them?"

"You wouldn't believe anything else, and neither would I." Lex shook his head. "All good dreams have to be rooted somewhat in reality for us to lose ourselves in them. They don't always have to be that **close**... but the roots have to be there. I don't know of any scientific metal or other substance that you can't break. Hell, you made Lois a **diamond** the other year by pressure alone."

"How'd you hear about that?" Clark demanded.

Lex just looked at him.

"Uh, right." Clark turned back to the chains, tugging at them again and twisting his wrist around. Not seriously trying to get out, just testing them.

"She was a fool to turn you down," Lex said softly, coming back closer to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Um, no," Clark turned his attention back to Lex. "Turns out we're better partners than we were lovers. She saw it sooner than I did. I always seem to have my eye on impossible goals."

Lex wasn't quite sure what to make of that and decided not to touch it. This Clark kept throwing him off. He knew his subconscious wanted him to have something different, something where he didn't already know what would happen. This Clark was something else entirely. Lex suspected it was time to sit down with his subconscious and have a nice long talk. The last few years, he'd left off his regular introspections, and it was probably starting to have an effect.

"Lex," Clark's voice was hesitant, and Lex responded to it immediately, turning towards his friend automatically. Clark tried a twisted attempt at a smile, that came out more like a grimace. "Lex, could you make them some other color?"

With a blink, Lex looked at the green stones. "A different color?"

"Not green. **Anything** but green... God, Lex, I'm squirming just from being this near to them, even if they're not really hurting."

That was a problem. Lex eyed the stones with a new perspective. He'd never really thought about how Clark saw them. Some of the other Clarks, particularly the Supermen, raged about the use of kryptonite period... but that was more of a 'I didn't **really** think I was going to be helpless' rage -- not this worry about instinctual reactions to seeing them. And if Lex didn't think of it, it was highly unlikely his subconscious would have either. Lex's world was turning upside down, the fantasy spinning around him even as he struggled to keep control and his suspicions off his face. "What color would you like?"

Clark shrugged, a relieved look in his eyes. "Anything. Yellow, pink, purple, brown... I don't care. Just not green." Clark paused, then hurriedly added, "Or red. No red either."

"Right." Lex settled himself into a comfortable position sitting on the bed, and then closed his eyes to concentrate. He was doing more than just shifting landscaping around, he was actually making a fundamental change to the dreamscape. The color change would be built into the system, so that whenever that meteor rock was called up again in the future, it would be the same. Lex, and all his constructs, would know it down to the instincts. Citrine, Lex thought. The rich yellow-orange color of a cut citrine gem, shaded into the depths of the crystal lattice within the meteor stones and reflected back. He opened his eyes and focused on one of the crystals, watching it change from the bright green into the yellow. The glow around the stone, Lex was careful to keep consistent with the hues, shifting the glow at the same time as he altered the stone. He couldn't see them, but he knew that around him, the other three gems were shifting at the same time.

From beside Lex, Clark heaved a sigh. "That's better."

Lex looked at the younger man tied and spread out. His black hair was rumpled and a little spiky from when he'd been struggling. Sweat was drying out in patches across the bare skin. All in all, Clark looked like he'd already been debauched and this was the aftermath, rather than that they were just getting started.

"Do you still want to?" Lex asked. He wasn't sure what Clark was going to say. So far, he'd done all the leading, even if Clark had gone along. If Clark answered... Lex just wasn't sure what to think if Clark answered yes. Would that be proof that Clark was a dream? Or just that things had gotten very strange indeed.

Clark shifted within his confines, an instinctive reach to Lex aborted by the chains. "You could have pulled the kryptonite out at any time yesterday. You could have made them hurt tonight. You could have ignored everything I wanted and gone on with your dream."

Lex started to say something and Clark cut him off, "I understand -- none of that **is** your dream. But that's what's so amazing." Clark looked at his shackles and then back at Lex, a fervor burning deep within his eyes and showing in his voice as he kept talking. "I want you, Lex. I want your dream. I want to know what you'll show me, I want to hold you freely, I want to kiss you. I had no idea about this part of you -- this part of **me**. Here... Yes, I still want you."

The intensity was burning. Lex wanted to close his eyes and shield himself against it, at the same time as he wanted to open himself up and fall in and get burnt. Clark wanted him. It really was a dream, one that grabbed his heart and clenched it tight. Lex had lived for so many years with only the disappointment, the anger, the doors closing... Even in his wildest imaginings, he never went this far, this intense. It wouldn't feel real if he forced it. But it was happening now, and it was a surprise. For a door to open deliberately to him... Lex wanted this dream that was more than a dream. He wanted it so badly; being burnt in the fire was a small price to pay.

Lex shifted from his sitting position to lean in over Clark, running his hands up Clark's chest and touching Clark's lips lightly with his own.

Clark growled at the too gentle touch and pushed upward, capturing Lex's mouth with his own, pressing Lex's hands more firmly into his body.

Settling on top of Clark, Lex stretched out, running his touch up Clark's spread-out arms until they were clasping hands. At this point, they were pressing together on almost every inch, arms to arms, chest to chest, waist to waist, mouth to mouth. They made out like this for a while before Lex pulled himself up again.

"If you do want to stop -- if at any point along the way, you really don't want this, just call out for the Lord, savior of all."

"Lex," Clark looked at him in disbelief, "I don't think you really want me to use, 'Oh God; Jesus; Lord Have Mercy' as a safe-word, or we'll be stopping half the night."

With a wicked grin, Lex traced Clark's lip with his finger. "Actually... I was thinking 'Superman'."

Clark burst out laughing, green eyes sparkling, and he reached for Lex, only to be brought up short again by the chains. "Damn shackles!"

With a thought, Lex banished them. No shackles, no chains, no yellow kryptonite. The sturdy framed bed changed slightly into a similar one without the extra bondage support. The room similarly shifted into a more normal one -- still with the candlelight and purple sheets, but without the bars on the window or the equipment on the walls.

Blinking, Clark sat up, holding an arm around Lex as he did so. "What did you do that for?"

"I'm not in the mood for games anymore," Lex replied, tickling the slight amount of chest hair on Clark. Too many games and Lex wasn't in the mood, really. And as willing as Clark had been, the younger man wasn't ready for it. Willing, maybe -- ready, not. Clark wanted to hold and touch and explore almost as much as he wanted the sex, because it was so new to him. Which **might** have been a figment of Lex's imagination... but he thought not.

There was just too much going on here. One too many odd things. Much like Clark himself. A subconscious that threw unexpected things at Lex was one thing; one that threw in things that he himself had never even thought of was something else entirely. This was not a dream. Or at least not just a dream, even as Clark had tried to tell him earlier. And while Lex didn't really like games anymore, he feared he was stuck in this one for awhile longer. One more night, at least. Lex would let them have this night, because he wanted it so badly. He could ignore the other things for a little while longer. He was used to ignoring conflicting information about Clark; collecting the information yet responding to Clark only as Clark chose to present himself to Lex. There was a lot about this dream that was familiar, and Lex's heart ached with it.

Clark didn't seem to notice, taking advantage of his freed limbs to embrace Lex in a full-body hug, lying back on the bed and drawing Lex down with him. One hand cupped Lex's head, while the other hand wrapped around Lex's back. Clark's legs tangled with Lex's, hooking around his ankles and calves. Clark's mouth was lip-locked with Lex's again, tongue tracing the inside of his mouth and darting back before ranging again.

Lex melted on top of Clark, letting himself absorb the intensity of Clark's focus. He stored it and then returned it again ten-fold. This time, he wouldn't let Clark overwhelm him. Lex started with an attack on Clark's jugular, disengaging from the mouth-to-mouth and kissing his way down Clark's jaw onto his neck, lingering there. At the same time, he stroked down Clark's side to his flank, and played with dipping his hand in and out between Clark's pants and his skin.

The sounds Clark was making... There were several little gasps, some moans, a laugh or two between them when Lex did something unexpected, and there was naming of names and prayers interspersing the other noises. Lex had always thought that Clark would be the quieter of them during sex. Though, Lex had to admit, he wasn't being all that quiet himself, in a rather similar repertoire.

Since the hand on the back of Lex's head hadn't been summarily rejected, apparently Clark took this as permission to concentrate there. Lex was rather used to his bed-partners being alternatively fascinated and repulsed by the natural lack of hair, but he had to admit that Clark took it to slightly new levels. Lex's move down to Clark's neck had placed Clark in a good position for kissing the side of Lex's head, and when Lex took a breather from assaulting Clark's jugular, Clark took the opportunity to explore further. He spent quite a bit of time above Lex's ear on up where the hairline would have been on a normal person, kissing and caressing and tenderly rubbing with his face. "I always loved your head. Well, everything, really. But I'd spend hours just watching you; it was so fascinating, how beautiful you were."

The other side to Clark's being such a lousy liar was that his truths always blazed like the sun.

"Speak for yourself," Lex retorted, his heart beating fast, yet he was determined not to fold under the pressure. "You were the pretty one."

Clark shifted so they could see each other's faces again, and he gave Lex a smile that was as blinding as it had been in their youth. Quite proving Lex's point.

"Mutual admiration society here," Clark laughed, than shifted them to their sides. "Works for me." He leaned in to nuzzle at Lex's throat, apparently changing targets.

"Umm," Lex lost concentration for rational vocalization. It was the most vulnerable and wondrous feeling, having somebody nibbling at your neck. Of all the acts, this one was the one that always undid him. Lex hooked his arm over Clark's shoulders, just for the stability as he melted.

"Ah," Clark sounded self-satisfied, as he mumbled into Lex's skin, talking without moving away. "That's a spot to remember."

The assumption of memory and a next time made Lex shut his eyes briefly, his heart aching. He pushed Clark over on his back again and shifted down on his chest, twining his hand briefly with Clark's as they repositioned. When Lex would have let go again, Clark held on and brought their hands up to his mouth, loving Lex's hand with the same attention to detail as he'd given Lex's head.

"Your hands... so slim and so sure. You always were holding something, and I always wanted to be that something."

Lex chuckled, raising his head from Clark's chest, "You **were** that something, most of the time. Bottles were a wonderful way of keeping my hands from where they wanted to be." He ran his other hand down to Clark's waist, tracing the pants line. "But you did **not** want me that way back then -- don't lie about it."

There was a sudden stillness from beneath him and the grip on Lex's hand tightened almost painfully, though Clark stopped carefully shy of it. Years of practice, Lex had to assume. Or instinct. Lex didn't react and instead kept tracing the outline of Clark's pants, playing with the button. He rubbed his leg against the outside of Clark's, feeling the play of cloth over their skins.

"Then... Back then, I didn't know what I wanted. But I still loved watching you. I just didn't know why."

The honesty in Clark's voice lifted Lex's gaze to meet the serious green eyes.

"I treasured our times, together, Lex, I really did."

'Did' being the past-tense operative word there. But Lex wasn't going to dwell on it. Not tonight. He popped the button on Clark's pants and moved his hand inside, effectively derailing the conversation as Clark's eyes closed and he laid his head back with a moan.

Taking advantage of Clark's distraction, Lex freed his other hand from Clark's grip. Scooting down the bed, Lex gave his concentration to a delicate operation; he unzipped Clark's pants, carefully protecting him from the metal edges as he did so. The striped red and blue boxer shorts, while very cute, were in the way. Lex vanished them with a thought, leaving Clark's dick free to his view. It was a very nice penis, not too wide and almost the right length that Lex liked. He wouldn't have been surprised if this really was a dream. Which it was, but not... Lex distracted himself by taking Clark into his mouth.

Up above, Clark started yelling, interspersing curses with pleas to deities, and yes, those would have been really bad safe words. Lex grinned as he continued to move up and down, holding the pants out of the way with one hand, while using the other to accompany his mouth.

Clark placed his hand on Lex's neck, the fingers sliding for a moment, looking for purchase and not finding it, "Lex, too close..." Clark's fingers kept skittering, confusion in the movements.

Lex appreciated that Clark didn't just grab his skull in place of the hair the fingers couldn't find. That wouldn't have been good. With a last lick, he pulled off Clark's cock, moving his hand up so it wouldn't get cold.

"God, Lex," Clark panted, his fingers changing to caressing, soothing over Lex's head.

Involuntarily, Lex moved into the strokes, like a cat being petted. It felt so good, the combination of the sweetness with the lust. He dropped his head down on Clark's hip, his ear on fabric, his eyes closing.

With a curse, Clark moved, sitting up and dislodging Lex, who protested. "I need to get out of these pants," Clark apologized, making fast work of it. Then he turned to Lex, who had rolled onto his back and was watching Clark. "And you need to get out of yours..."

Lex smiled, one corner of his mouth quirking up higher than the other. "I do?" He raised his arms above his head, folding his arms in a relaxed gesture.

Clark growled, and attacked Lex's pants with focus. That is, focus up until the point where he unbuttoned and unzipped Lex's slacks. Then he stood for a long moment, just looking at Lex's cock sticking through the gap. Hesitantly, he touched it.

Lex arched up, thrusting into Clark's hand with a low moan.

With a gulp, Clark took a firmer grip and started stroking. Lex encouraged this with more sounds and movements, his eyes closed as he focused on the feel of the big hand enveloping him.

"God, Lex. You're so beautiful," Clark's voice sounded reverent. Lex didn't open his eyes but he arched again, this time deliberately, tightening his abdominal muscles and making a display of it. He heard Clark's indrawn breath.

With a speed that was almost near to his dreamscape manipulations, Lex felt his pants being whipped off him. A coolness and the breeze floating over his bare skin was his only true knowledge of what was happening, because he certainly didn't see it. His cock was released for a moment of loneliness before the hand wrapped around it again. Clark was back on top of him, his mouth raining kisses upon Lex's, his other hand holding the side of Lex's head.

Lex opened his mouth to receive the kisses, letting tongue and more in as he reveled in the feel of Clark's body stretched out over his. Clark was a bit heavy, but nothing he couldn't endure; especially for this wonderful sense of being enveloped completely. Lex folded his arms down, holding Clark inside his embrace, running his hands over the smooth back. Clark continued to stroke his cock, even as he shifted on top of Lex, seeking greater contact.

Moving his mouth reluctantly away, Lex suggested with amusement, "Clark, if you move your hand, our groins can touch without anything between them."

Clark took that like it was a pearl of wisdom instead of the crude suggestion it was, eyes lightening with laughter, "But I don't want to let go..."

Lex snorted, twisting his hips under Clark and rubbing Clark's cock with his body. Clark gasped and then quickly took his hand off Lex, moving them so that they were lined up together. He thrust down, moaning in pleasure while Lex thrust up.

The feeling was wonderful, friction of bare skin, their bodies moving as one, connected. Clark's eyes glazed over as he braced himself on his arms and trust harder. Lex responded to the harder thrust with one of his own, and then he shook himself out of it. He didn't want to come just yet... there was a bit more he wanted to do first. Though most of what he wanted to do was already bypassed. This just wasn't a night for taking things slow.

"Clark," Lex tugged gently on the black hair, though he knew it wouldn't actually hurt Clark if he did it harder. "Clark, there's more -- calm down a little."

The glazed look slowly dissipated from Clark's eyes, though he continued to rub against Lex. "What?" he asked simply, apparently not ready for full sentences.

"Prove you're a man and do a push up," Lex teased. "I need a bit more room, you big lug."

With a sound that was half choked laugh and half growl, Clark complied, finding his balance on his feet and his arms, lifting up off Lex.

Within Clark's arms, Lex rolled over in place, grabbing the pillow to stuff under his belly and chest and then relaxing back down. He didn't really think he needed to explain further.

"Oh Sweet Mary, Joseph, and Jesus," Clark swore like the good Methodist his family was. The funny thing was that he really did make it sound like a prayer.

"Lex, can I..." Clark's question trailed off in awe.

Lex stifled a chuckle. "You can do anything you want to," he promised the younger man.

Clark shifted so that he was partially kneeling, partially lying next to Lex. He kissed Lex's ear, nibbling gently upon the lobe. Lex turned his head to meet him and they shared another kiss, this one sweet and messy. After they were both breathless, Clark sat up. He reached out and stroked down Lex's back from the top of his neck to the base of his spine. Lex melted into the pillow, letting out a small whimper. Then the evil truly started as Clark gave a low chuckle and with his large strong hands started to massage Lex.

Strong, gentle movements, rubbing and kneading firmly into taut muscles and loose flesh. Combined with a hearty dose of not-so-accidental touches of his thighs against Lex's as Clark shifted around. Over the years, Lex had had lots of massages. There was the professional one that was strictly business, and then there was the sexy one that led to other things. Clark was very definitely giving the second type, his movements sure and direct. The only times he hesitated were when he got lower down towards the hips. Obviously, Clark wasn't new to making love in general -- just the male aspect was what he was working out. The other night, Lex had assumed it was part of his own hidden fantasy. Tonight, Lex knew better, and was surprised. Considering how many people, both male and female, threw themselves at Clark on a regular basis, Lex had thought that one of them, at least, would have succeeded. In a way, he was glad he was the first, though it made it all the more painful to know he would never have this in real life. Clark thought Lex thought it was a dream, and that let Clark do things he would never do otherwise.

"Relax," Clark murmured.

Lex forced himself to stop thinking. There would be plenty of time for that later. He wanted this now. "Are you going to tease all night?" Lex asked.

Clark hummed noncommittally, however his hands moved lower, from Lex's hips to his ass, still kneading as if in massage, but his fingers were sliding into areas that masseuses didn't.

"Ah..." Lex writhed on the sheets, trying to bring Clark's fingers to just the right spot. He shifted his weight to his knees, lifting his ass up further in encouragement.

With a chuckle, Clark let a finger slip in.

"Yes," Lex pushed back, encouraging the other man. It felt good, his skin sensitized and ready, his cock hard against the bed. Pressure on both sides, and he wasn't thinking too much anymore. Particularly not when Clark leaned down to kiss along his shoulder blades, while inserting another finger in, stretching him out. Obviously, he knew at least the theory of the technique. The internet was a wonderful thing.

"Lex," Clark moaned, his kisses on Lex's back frantic as his movements of his hand grew rougher.

"It's good, go," Lex encouraged him. In real life, it would be longer, but in the dreamscape, Lex had complete control of his body and could adjust as needed. Right now, faster was good.

With a groan, Clark sat up again and positioned himself. His breathing was fast and ragged. Placing one hand on Lex's back, he slowly pushed in. "God Almighty, Lex," Clark spoke reverently. "You... Me. Me in you. Oh God."

Since he was facing the pillow, Lex let himself grin at the prayer. Some people cursed. Clark, though, was apple pie through and through. As amused as he was, though, Lex couldn't deny the reverberation of the truth of it. The physical part of having Clark in him was wonderful, large hot flesh pushing through, feeling filled and all the nerve endings alight. The fact that it was **Clark** in him... Silently, Lex repeated Clark's prayer.

Clark moved, starting the age-old rhythm of sex, pulling partially out, pushing back in, slowly at first, but with greater speed as he kept going. "Lex," Clark gasped, "Say something. Is this... okay?"

Lex had been in a mindless trance, just going with the rhythm, his body moving in time. At Clark's question, his eyes flicked open and he stared at the bedsheet. Speaking wasn't something he wanted to do. "Fine," he managed. Then he adjusted the dreamscape to bunch up the pillow under him even more, raising his hips further up. Maybe that would change the angle... "Though if you could get my prostate, it would be better."

Clark stilled within him. "I'm not?"

Right, first time. Lex pushed his hips back, "Keep moving!"

Resuming his thrusting, Clark started experimenting, angling differently, trying rotation, shifting to a higher position.

All of which felt wonderful. There was an unpredictability to Clark's movements that made Lex wild. He moaned, pushing back and letting himself go.

"There?"

Actually, not. All the experimentation was sensation after sensation, but so far Clark had only grazed the prostate a couple of times, and not directly on. "You're the one with X-ray vision, can't you find it?"

"Eww..." Clark sounded horrified.

Which, Lex had to admit, the idea of looking at someone's insides during sex probably wasn't very conducive to the mood. Instead, he sighed and started adjusting the dreamscape again. If he could make self-lubricating asses, which were rather de rigueur in the fantasy world, Lex could make a prostate finder. He envisioned his ass glowing with a sign pointing at it, and started laughing.

"Lex?" Clark asked worriedly, though he still kept thrusting. Then he suddenly paused, "Whoa..."

"Cold spot?" Lex asked.

"Yeah..."

"That's my prostate. Hit that, please."

Clark shifted his angle, getting a grip on Lex's hips and pulling him slightly up more, then pushed in on target.

Lex cried out, falling forward with the intensity of the pleasure.

"Ah," Clark breathed out in obvious satisfaction. He firmed his grip on Lex, holding him in place, and then renewed the vigor of his earlier drive.

Lex wasn't silent now. With every thrust, he was gibbering, cursing, crying. He balled up his fist and hit the bed, "Clark!" He was wound so tight, he was going to explode at any moment now.

Clark was moving steadily, almost mechanically, each of his thrusts at the same speed and strength. But his breathing was fast and Lex could feel sweat falling down upon his back. Clark's hands would have left bruises, if there was a reality to wake up to.

Without any warning, between one hit and the next, Lex came. It was powerful and intense, the pleasure rushing out of him and taking all his energy and vitality with it. He fell limp, held up only by Clark's hands.

For the time that Lex was coming, Clark stilled, perfectly motionless. A rapturous moan was his only vocalization. After Lex went limp, Clark resumed his movements, speeding up and no longer perfectly on target as his thrusts went ragged, the energy of excess driving out in moments. With a quiet gasp, Clark collapsed on top of Lex.

Lex couldn't work up the energy to say 'ouch'. However, Clark only stayed like that for a little while before he rolled off. Someone had trained him well on post-coital bedroom etiquette. With another movement, Clark rolled Lex to his side and then gathered Lex up into his arms, spooning tightly against him, tucking his head against Lex's. Clark stroked Lex's arm down to his hand and then held it, bringing both their hands up to Lex's chest.

"I love you, Lex," Clark said softly, heart-felt emotion lacing through his voice.

Closing his eyes tightly, Lex said nothing, listening to his heartbeat speed wildly and forcing it to calm back down again.

With a kiss against Lex's head, Clark settled into sleep.

Lex stayed awake for a long time after, held in strong arms, wishing this was only a fantasy.

... ... ...

 

The next morning, Lex awoke in a bad mood. He chewed out his employees over minor mistakes, harassed his secretary, and ordered several internal reviews, scaring the heads of those companies shitless.

When it came time for lunch, Lex knew he couldn't put it off anymore. Grabbing his coat, he headed outside and down the street, leaving bodyguards scattered in his wake.

Inside the Daily Planet, Lex walked by security like it wasn't there. Only a few brave ones even tried to detain him, but Lex easily went right through them and on up to the bull pen. Once there, he paused in the doorway, looking around. Nothing seemed out of place, other than the couple dozen eyes on him. Lex casually strolled in the direction of Perry's office, then abruptly detoured to Lois and Clark's desk, like it was a sudden decision.

The two reporters were there, staring at him like he was something the cat had hacked up. "Well, Lex Luthor himself," Lois said bitingly, "What brings you our way?"

"Something for someone with more ability than you," Lex replied just as acerbically, and then they were off. The banter was familiar, easy, comfortable. Clark leaned on his desk and watched and occasionally contributed -- on both ends. It was a standard give and take... yet there was nothing right about this; nothing at all. They were good copies, almost perfect, but both of them were merely shells. There was nothing living within them. Lex wondered how long they were meant to last.

Greatly daring, Lex reached out mentally the way he would if the world was his dreamscape, and found that he could touch them. The rest of the world was as it was, nothing would change that. But these two... they were constructs. Just for the heck of it, he created a little itch and then watched Clark scratch his nose absently. Lex shuddered internally, not letting it show externally. Here was the dream, that wasn't there last night.

Perry's office door opened, and the editor stood within it, glaring impartially at all of them. "If you're quite finished," he growled, then waited for Lex to come in.

"What the hell do YOU want?" Perry asked, seating himself at his desk once the door was closed.

"Why are you letting a pair of changelings work for you?" Lex retaliated, sitting comfortably in the guest seat, reclining in leisure.

Perry stiffened, his eyes darting to the world outside his closed door, then back to Lex. "You son of a bitch..."

Lex held up a hand, "Son of a bastard, I'll admit to, but don't malign my mother." He narrowed his eyes, "Not my doing, but I'm very interested in finding out whose. Now you're not a stupid man, and you've obviously figured out some part of it... I want to hear what it was they were doing, and how we can fix it."

They talked for another hour, Perry initially reluctant to, first of all, believe him, and second to give him any information whatsoever, but they finally worked out terms and were able to come to a settlement. Lex guardedly told Perry he thought Clark had been trying to contact him and mentioned the few details that Clark had let slip, making Perry think that Lex was holding back something... but in no way even close to thinking what the something was. Perry, in turn, told Lex about the investigation the two reporters had been working on. Mysterious disappearances that seemed to have nothing in common. They had started with an antiquities dealer and somehow connected the others, though there didn't seem to be a link on the surface. Perry had let them have a fairly free rein, so wasn't sure of the details. They had, however, been researching a certain 4th century BC necklace... Lex was able to get a photograph of the necklace, and a location, and went off thinking about his options.

Back at his office, Lex told his secretary to rearrange his next several days, and then took care of the meetings he absolutely couldn't miss. The extra work took him well into the night. When he finally went home, it was long past a normal person's bed time. Yet he didn't feel tired.

Pouring himself a shot of whisky, Lex gulped it down. Then he poured another and drank that one as well. Then he switched to bourbon, with a larger glass. He walked to the window and looked out over the city. There had been at least four incidents in the last couple of days that Superman should have responded to. Nothing violently major, and no real body count... but they were things that if Superman had been around, he would have been there, helping. Doing his goody-two-shoes routine and playing angel down from heaven. Lex sipped his bourbon without noticing the taste. If there was any major emergency, and Superman wasn't there to respond... would Clark blame Lex? For the days wasted in dalliance. For Clark's own weakness that he'd turn back upon Lex. It would be a familiar scenario, if so. Though Lex admitted to his own share of it in years past. They had gotten into a rut, the two of them. Accusations, silences, denials, anger. It no longer mattered which parts were the truth and which were the lies, for it was the dance, and the dance must go on. Except now, it wouldn't. Because one of the dancers was not here.

Lex finished his glass and turned to throw it casually at the fireplace. It shattered into a thousand pieces, joining other crystal fragments in the ashes.

Hell, if he wasn't tired, maybe he was at least drunk enough to sleep. With a sigh, Lex went to bed.

... ... ...

 

Stepping into his dreamscape, Lex both dreaded and anticipated what was to come. He braced himself... and was oddly disappointed when no one met him. Sending out a quick thought, Lex confirmed it. No Clark here yet. Nor one knocking at his door.

At his nebulous thoughts, a construct formed. A lean, muscular Clark, plaid shirt ripped in pieces dangling over the sweaty chest, mouth open, tongue licking the deep red lips, black hair wildly askew, green eyes watching him hungrily.

"Lex," Clark growled, "what have you done now?" The construct approached Lex, hands grabbing his head and tilting his face upward for a bruising messy kiss. After a few moments of enjoying the physical sensations, Lex stepped back, disentangling himself.

Clark let him move back, but his eyes sparked angrily, "If there's somebody else, you should know you're mine alone. Maybe you need another reminder." Clark stepped forward, pushing into Lex's space, the promise deep around them.

It was tempting, very, very, sorely tempting, to let it continue. Lex wondered what Clark would think if he walked in mid-way. As amusing as that thought was, a dream wasn't what Lex was in the mood for right now. "Maybe another night," Lex said, and vanished his unconscious creation. There was a slight swirling in the air as the Clark construct faded out, his green eyes baffled and accusing. And this was just a damn dream.

Yes, Lex wasn't surprised that he had failed to notice anything that first night. This sort of thing happened to him often enough inside his dreamscapes, and his Clarks were very good at the talking back and the accusations. It was, after all, what he expected of them.

Lex laid down in one of the lounge chairs and closed his eyes to wait. He could hear the sound of breezes through the trees, soft babbling of the waterway, crickets and frogs chirping. At the last, Lex opened his eyes, blinking. Frogs and crickets were part of Smallville, not the penthouse upper grotto. It appeared the worlds had mixed while he was distracted. With a small shrug, Lex let it be. It was a pleasant sound, at least. He played a bit with the water, increasing the speed of the flow and making more drops in the stream for waterfalls. When that too started to pall, Lex looked up at the stars and started mucking with the constellations. He'd worked for literally years to get the stars just right, even putting in rotational axis and seasonal variations. But he could always put it back again later. If there was a later.

Attention fully on his dreamscape, Lex could feel it when Clark finally came in. There... Lex identified the rip in his edges where Clark got through. It was a weaker spot, to be sure, but the truly damning thing was that Lex could feel his permission permeating the area, welcoming Clark's entrance and smoothing the way for him.

"Hey," Clark approached him, a smile lighting up his face and making him look ten years younger.

Lex sat up, shifting the lounge chair to a bench. "Hey, yourself," he replied, his heart aching.

Sitting down next to him, Clark kissed Lex, a simple press of lips to lips, a hello between lovers and friends. Instinctively, Lex returned it.

Clearing his throat, Lex asked, "So how was your day?"

With a sigh, Clark shifted, draping an arm over the back of the bench, around Lex's shoulders. He took awhile to answer, looking out into the darkness. "Frustrating," he finally said. "So many closed doors, so few people who dream, and those smug bastards whenever we get back for the next try..."

It was on the tip of Lex's tongue, old, old instincts, to ask Clark how he could help, wanting to fix the world for his friend. Before the traitorous thought could work its way out, Clark shook his head and turned to Lex.

"How about yours?"

"My?" Lex was baffled for a moment, his mind racing a thousand places. His dreams? His bastards? His doors? His help?

Beside him, Clark silently shook with laughter before he leaned in to sweetly kiss Lex's cheek. "Your day. How was your day?"

"Oh." Lex thought over his day. How would one describe it? 'Honey, I met your doppelganger today...' "It was busy."

With a single finger and coaxing pressure, Clark turned Lex's head to face him. "Lex, are you okay?"

"Never better," the lie came automatically to his lips.

Clark frowned deeply and Lex remembered that even though his lies were a lot smoother and more polished than Clark's, given their experience together, Clark could see right through them as if they were visible to x-ray eyes. However, Lex didn't want to go to the bother of trying to figure out something that wasn't a lie but wasn't quite the truth. Clark didn't usually appreciate those either.

Instead, "What did you want to do tonight?" Lex asked Clark. Heaven help him, he just kept postponing it. He was as bad as Clark was. Would this night end in sex too? What was the time-limit on changelings before they dissolved? Could Clark and Lois get back if there was no more tie to this world?

"You're drunk," Clark breathed out suddenly, a goofy grin spreading across his face. "I haven't seen you drunk for..."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"I am not." Lex stood just to prove his point. His side where Clark had been pressed up against him felt cold. "Just a bit tipsy," he conceded. Maybe he shouldn't have had that last bourbon. He glanced up to the stars where he'd been playing with the constellations earlier. His last message was still there, scrawled out across the sky, his heart exposed for all to see.

Clark never looked up, watching Lex instead. His grin faded to sympathy. "Red letter day?"

"You could say that," Lex admitted.

"What---" Clark cut himself off. "No, forget I asked that. Temptation. No, bad." The last bit was muttered to himself.

Lex watched with a little frown, and then shook himself. He walked over to the stream and splashed some suddenly cold water on his face. He really wasn't intoxicated, however his mindset was fragmenting badly and it wasn't doing him any good to listen to Clark break up as well.

Clark walked up behind him and stood close. "So, I was thinking..." he said cheerfully.

"That's never a good sign," Lex muttered.

Playfully, Clark nudged him with his leg. "How about a game of pool?"

"Pool?" Lex's mind went blank again. Or rather, it wasn't blank, but filled with so many images, so many memories that it was hard for anything else to fit in. The two of them in the castle together, playing pool. Innocently, for the most part. Something they could both do while bridging the gap between six years and several million dollars. They'd talked incessantly while they played, about just about everything. Lex had burned the pool table years ago. Broken it to bits with a sledgehammer, then tossed the flammable parts into the flames. At the end, though, as he was walking out, he kept a piece of felt that had gotten tangled in his shirt. That piece was sitting on the mantelpiece in his penthouse.

"Pool," Clark confirmed, holding out his hand, an invitation open in his eyes and face as he guilelessly reached out to Lex.

Damn him anyhow. Lex closed his eyes and then stood up, accepting Clark's hand. "Why not?" he said. It was always where their best lies had been told.

Taking a mental grasp upon himself and Clark, Lex shifted them into the mansion. It was a different sort of shift than changing the surroundings to match the fantasy. While Lex's current dreams opened into the grotto, the actual heart of the dreamscape was here. The castle was the first thing he had built, though he'd moved out of it long ago.

"Wow," Clark let go of Lex's hand and stepped forward in amazement. He looked at the stained-glass windows, the bookcases, the suits of armor, the tiled floors. "Lex, this is incredible." Clark wandered around the room, touching the pool table, the walls, the books. "It's..." Clark's voice shifted to puzzlement, "it's perfect. Just as it was." Clark walked to the coffee table and picked up his geometry textbook, which had been left there sprawled in untidy lines one day. With a baffled look, Clark put the book down again, and then turned to Lex. "How?" he asked simply. Spoiled a moment later by expanding on it. "How did you get it so perfect? Nobody else has nearly such detailed dreams, and this..." Clark trailed off, confused and trying not to show it.

Lex really wanted another drink. He walked to the cabinet and got out one of the ubiquitous water bottles, twisting the cap off with a practiced flick. Facing the glass windows and not Clark, he started, "When I was 22, I lived on a deserted island for three months. Not one of my finest moments. But what I learned through malaria and delirium was that I had a very vivid imagination." He would have sworn back then that Lewis was real. Somewhere in this dreamscape, Lewis still lived, running around on his deserted beach, teaching young men how to kill rats with their bare hands and survive.

"When I was 23, I was put in a mental institution." Lex could almost feel Clark's tension behind him, though the younger man didn't say a word and Lex didn't turn around. "I was given many treatments there, from drugs to psychobabble to shock therapy. I was let loose with the other prisoners, I was put into solitary. I was tied up, I was let loose. They changed things on me every day and there was nothing real there. Through the drugs and everything they were doing, I was fragmenting away into nothingness. The only way I had to keep any part of myself intact was my imagination."

Lex took a sip of the water. "At first, it was small things. Just remembering my favorite comic and reconstructing it page by page until I could pull it out and read it even when tied down with a metal cage around my head. Movies. It's amazing how much dialog you can remember when the alternative is nothing."

Pacing over to the pool table without ever actually facing Clark, Lex ran his hand over it. "Pool was a good standard to fall back on. Playing games with myself, letting my scattered mind randomize the shots and still plot out the next move. But a table needed somewhere to be." Lex turned to Clark, waving his hand around the room, "I built a lot of this during that time. Not all of it, but the core -- particularly this room, was done there."

Clark's eyes were rounder than saucers, his mouth slightly open, his hand half extended and just resting there in the air as if he'd forgotten what he was doing with it.

Taking another drink, Lex walked over to his desk and then sat on the edge, swinging to face Clark. "The thing about memory is that it's not really linear. I don't know who sold my dad on that idea, or why he believed them... maybe he was desperate. The shock treatment that wiped my memory didn't wipe what they thought it did. When I woke up, I didn't know what the color green was. Blue, yellow, red... yes. But green, though I could see it, I didn't know what it was. I had to relearn that. Other things were gone forever -- my Aunt Margaret, mom's sister. I know she existed, but I don't remember her at all. Why that watch in my box, the one with the Napoleonic coin, was so important to me. Some bits of the more recent past, but nothing like Dad was hoping for. Or you."

"But..." Clark's face was pale, his voice stuttering. "But you never **said**..."

Lex smiled grimly, "My father tossed me in a mental intuition and used shock treatment to take away my memories. What sane person would admit to remembering **that**?" He put an ironic emphasis on the 'sane'.

Clark moved a step closer before stopping. "I'm... Lex, I'm sorry I couldn't get you out."

That would have been nice to hear eight years ago. Now? Lex shrugged, "You tried. That's more than anybody else did. Just as well you didn't -- you weren't in any way prepared to go up against my father."

Lex hadn't been ready to go up against his father either. He thought he had been. His father thought he had been. But that year showed both of them just how much more Lex had to learn. And he'd learned it. Part by grim part, he'd learned. In the end, Lionel had been proud of him, and had said so before he'd died. Leaving Lex with a multi-million dollar corporation, survival skills of a shark, and no friends at all. "Thanks, Dad," Lex muttered, tossing a salute to his dearly departed.

"Lex..." Clark started walked toward him. Lex couldn't have that. He held up his hand and Clark stopped.

"The other thing about this dreamscape," Lex said softly, "is that I have nearly complete control over it. Though I let in bits of randomness so it doesn't get boring. My fantasies about Clark Kent have been well established for years." He dropped his voice an octave, narrowing his eyes, "But none of my constructs would **ever** have asked about this."

Outside, darkness dropped over the landscape, storm clouds circling. Inside, the light dimmed, leaving an eerie glow that didn't come from the lamps.

"Um," Clark instinctively took a step back.

Lex stood up from the desk, vanishing the water bottle he'd been holding. "Who the fuck are you? And what are you doing here?" He already knew, but he wanted to force it. The shark was out, and he was circling.

Clark raised his hands in a pacifying gesture that just deepened Lex's anger. "It's me, Lex." He swallowed, "I mean, it's really me. I'm Clark." He tried to take a step forward and found himself blocked by suddenly thick air. The lights flickered as lightning cracked outside. Clark gulped.

"It was something Lois and I were working on," Clark rushed through his words. "We were investigating these disappearances, and---"

Lex listened through most of what Perry had told him this afternoon with some extra details. When Clark got to the actual event, he paid more attention.

"And over at Professor Browning's apartment, he showed us this old necklace that we'd seen before from the research. When Lois touched it, one of the stones started glowing. I lunged at her, and then we both were... somewhere else. It was this weird city, looked like those mockups you used to keep in the castle of old Roman stuff."

Lex wished briefly that Clark had more of an interest in that 'old Roman stuff' -- it would have made identification a bit easier. He was fairly sure already what it might be, but confirmation would have been nice.

"There were all these folks watching us, laughing as we stumbled through. One of them said that now that we were here, we would have all the time in the world to learn."

"Learn about what?" Lex asked, his curiosity caught despite his anger.

Clark grimaced, "Well, they'd been mostly getting all these historians and museum people for the last hundred years until the necklace was sold last year. I guess they were used to them. But that was basically it. They let us go, and just sort-of wandered away. We tried to talk to them about getting back, and that's when one of them showed us how to dream-walk. We could only get to people who were dreaming about us, though, which limited our contacts."

Lex snorted, "I would think you would have had thousands of women, and men, dreaming about you."

"About Superman, maybe, but not about **me** ," Clark looked up at Lex, his heart in his eyes.

With all his anger bursting out, Lex growled. There was a crack of thunder outside, and the windows shook with winds howling and beating against them. "Fucker. You fucked with me, and you fucked me. Just when were you planning on letting me know?!"

Clark gulped, "Lex, I **tried** to tell you..."

"Not very damn hard," Lex hissed. One of the windows shattered. Hurricane gusts whipped through the mansion, tearing things from the wall. Old paintings ripped apart, frames splintered.

"I'm sorry." Clark tried to get to Lex, but the winds drove him back. He stumbled to the ground.

All the rest of the windows splintered and cracked, sending glass flying down around them. Lex stood in the middle, the chaos swirling around him. "Sorry is not enough."

The wooden support beams cracked, sending a wall collapsing. Pieces of the stonework barely missed Clark.

"Lex, please. I know I messed up, but---"

"Messed up?" Another wall collapsed, the roof falling in. Gale force winds picked up, throwing everything in the castle to bits. A twister could be seen looming above them.

Clark struggled forward, falling to his knees. "Lex..."

The castle shattered, everything sweeping away. Clark tried to grab onto bits to hold himself there, but everything slipped out. The tornado grabbed him instead and swept him up. Even his powers were no match for this rage-directed destruction.

Lex watched with narrowed eyes as the tornado swept through and back out, up into the sky. He ripped open a hole in his dreamscape and the winds holding Clark were expelled. Lex sealed the hole behind him.

Around him, the castle continued to fall apart, the grounds around it also shredding. The trees tearing out, the hedges, even the grass. The walls were destroyed, stone upon stone. Even the fabric of the dream started to unravel behind the hurricane. Until only Lex was left. Alone. Like he'd always been.

... ... ...

 

The next day, as the sky started to lighten in the pre-dawn, Lex stopped trying to sleep and started preparing. With the extra details that Clark had provided, Lex could cover more avenues of possibilities. Not to mention he needed to work on his company again. Lex expected a fairly quick in and out, yet there was always the risk of a longer time away. Or no return at all. He signed off on vacation powers and worked on some contingency plans. With only a small hesitation, Lex also put into motion a series of reviews and upgrades in the companies and labs. Safety was a problem that he really didn't care that much about, however if he wasn't at the helm, it would be more prudent for those who came after to have a smoother, legally run company to leave as his legacy. It could be his last gift to Clark, the one who had been his friend once upon a time.

Pain like a sharp lance shot through his body. Just thinking about Clark, and the last few nights, everything hurt. Lex wanted that dream so badly... but it wasn't real. No matter what had happened, Clark had lied, again, and Lex would be left to clean up the mess, again. To be fair, they were usually messes at least half of Lex's own making, but it was the being left part that always got to him. He didn't want to do that again. And yet, he would. What else could he do?

With another sigh, Lex pulled a pad of paper to him and wrote instructions for his replacement doppelganger. Hopefully, his doppelganger would **know** he was a changeling, unlike the others, and would be expecting it. Of course, that could also be a problem, if Lex's independence and survival streak came out in the doppelganger and he tried to sever his ties to Lex or to do something radical to stay in this world. Lex didn't **think** the changelings were that independent, but he didn't know. Particularly when the same formula would be applied to himself.

He considered getting the necklace and the Lois and Clark changelings and locking him and them both in a vault that would auto-open in seven days. That would be the prudent thing to do. Yet it would take hours, even up to a full day, to arrange, and Lex didn't think they had that much time left. He would have to trust in his doppelganger and hope he himself did the right thing. For once.

It would be nice to just go straight to the house and not pass go, but it wouldn't be smart. When Lex finished the last of his preparations, he went across the street to the Daily Planet.

This time, the gauntlet was familiar and security only made the most token show of stopping him. Lex paused briefly in the bull-pen but the changelings weren't there. Instead, he went to Perry's office. Jimmy was in there, but went quickly out with only a few nervous glances at Perry and Lex.

When the door was closed, Perry leaned back in his chair and gave Lex an expressive look. "Jimmy wanted to know if I knew Lois and Clark had been hypnotized."

"That's one explanation," Lex mused. "What did you tell him?"

"I said we were working on it, and asked him to report anything he finds or any theories he comes up with about it."

"That's a refreshing change from 'oh no, you're imagining things'." Lex couldn't help the sarcasm that escaped.

Perry looked at him sharply, but didn't respond directly. "What have you found?"

"I talked with Clark last night and got more details." Lex outlined the information and his conclusions from them. Hesitantly, against his grain, Lex also told Perry his plans. Surprisingly, Perry didn't try and talk him out of it.

After a thoughtful silence, Perry picked up the phone. "Lane, Kent -- come to my office, now." He leaned back in the chair again and stared at Lex, not challengingly, rather ... it was almost as if he was daring to hope and not sure if he should.

When Lois and Clark came in, Lex sucked in his breath. The constructs were unraveling. Lex could almost see the threads holding them together fading away, crumbling under the weight of the real world.

"Lex!" Clark's green eyes widened as he saw who was in the office, and the construct approached Lex, hands outstretched. "Are you okay?"

Surprised, Lex stayed still long enough for the construct to get right up to him. Dreams mixing with reality mixing with his emotions. Clark touched Lex's cheek, worry in his touch, concern in his voice.

Lex jerked back, stumbling over the chair behind him in the office and barely avoiding a fall as he put as much distance between them as he could. "Fuck off, asshole," he growled.

"Clark!" Lois exclaimed, pulling Clark away with a tight grab on his arm and waist.

Perry leaned back in his chair, looking between Clark and Lex, an eyebrow raised expressively.

Lex gritted his teeth. "There's obviously still a connection with the originals. Clark and I had a fight last night and it got... a little violent." He hadn't expected so **much** of a connection. When he'd seen them yesterday, there wasn't any indication of it. It might have something to do with how much the constructs were unraveling -- there was less in the real world to hold them so they were tied closer to the world they came from. Maybe. Lex also hadn't expected Clark's predominant emotion to be concern.

"We didn't..." Clark frowned, baffled.

Lois picked up on the other part. "Originals?"

Perry sighed.

Lex closed his eyes. "You're not the original Lois and Clark. You both are copies."

"That can't be, I'm me!" Lois put her hands on her hips, as defiant as her original.

Clark was still frowning, his gaze drifting between Perry and Lex. "Lois... I think..." Lois turned to him, questioning. Clark drew in a deep breath, "I think they're right."

Well, that was unexpected. Lex raised his eyebrows.

"We were just talking about it -- how strange we both felt."

"Disconnected," Lois said hollowly, her face shading into an expression of betrayal.

Just copies; but very good copies. Lex stopped himself from stepping forward, but his voice gentled involuntarily. "You've been in this world too long. The pieces holding you together are starting to fade out."

"Our originals?" Clark took a defensive stance next to Lois.

"They're in a pocket dimension. We're workin---" Lex started his patent, 'reassure the masses' speech, but he was cut off.

"What did you do?!"

Already on edge, and running on not much sleep, Clark's exclamation put Lex over the edge. He slammed his fist down on Perry's desk, breaking the wood and his skin. The desk lamp wobbled and then fell off, shattering on the ground. Papers that had been in piles flew through the air, displaced from their structure by the anger.

"You Goddamn Fucker!" Lex shouted, his rage as great as the night before.

Clark stepped forward, shifting in his personality to the closest the copy had come yet to a Superman persona.

Lex raised his fist, blood dripping off as he open his hand in a mocking gesture.

The door to the office opened, a reporter dashing in to the rescue.

"Get OUT!" Perry roared.

Reflexes in the Daily Planet were superb; within seconds, the reporter and those behind her were out of the office and the door was shut again.

Perry stood up and leaned over his desk. "Stop this, both of you!"

He rounded on Clark, "I thought we'd taught you better than that! Investigative reporters INVESTIGATE! You have no opinions; you look for the facts! You don't come out with statements like that -- a completely erroneous statement, I might add. If that had been public, and witnesses around, we would be slapped with a libel suit so fast your head would spin."

Lex smirked at the cowed look on Clark's face, but lost it as Perry switched to him.

"And you! Wipe that look off your face. If you don't WANT people to come out with that as their first thought, than stop DOING things that make them think it!"

His anger changing targets, Lex turned on Perry, "If you want to talk libel---"

"Fuck that nonsense!"

Lex blinked in complete surprise, shocked out of his anger. For all Perry White's infamous temper, he **never** swore. At least in public.

Before the next volley could take place, all conversation stopped short as Lois crumpled to the ground.

They tried simultaneously to rush to her. Clark, closest, held her in his arms.

"I'm okay," Lois said weakly, trying to push her way out and stand back up.

She wasn't okay. The strands that held the doppelganger together were fading, unraveling before Lex's eyes. If this changeling disappeared... Lois would be gone forever. Reaching out to grab her arm, Lex took a breath, forcing himself into something close to his trance state. Going to sleep would be bad, but if he could just access... There. Lex opened a door to his dream world, bypassing the normal entrance and going straight to the castle, which structurally was no more, however, all the energy and construction that had gone into making it was still swirling aimlessly in the world. He pulled out a thread of the power, tugging and wrapping it until it was strong enough to translate into the real world, and he fed that thread into Lois. The dream construct straightened up, turning to look at him in surprise as her eyes cleared and her form solidified.

Disengaging was harder. Lex was sweating by the time he was able to break away. Reluctantly, he held a hand out to Clark. "You also."

Clark hesitated, and Lex was so close to his world where dreams could come true that he flinched at that hesitation. Clark's mouth tightened, and he took Lex's hand.

It was much, much harder to shut it off this time. Only the fact that there was no more energy left from the castle allowed Lex to shut the door.

"I forgot," Perry said softly as Lex dropped Clark's hand, "how young you are."

Lex's back stiffened, but he was just too tired to work up a good rebuttal. "I am not, and never have been, young."

Perry snorted. "Not allowed to be young, is not the same as still **being** young. You're 31, Lex Luthor. That **is** young." He sighed, "Son, I don't know why you think you have to live down to people's expectations, but whatever sarcastic satisfaction you get from it, it obviously doesn't fit your instincts. Stop trying so hard."

Things were already weird enough without Lex getting flashbacks to Jonathan Kent as channeled through the Daily Planet's editor. Lex was sure he would be mad at that. In a second, after he'd regained his balance.

Perry shook his head. "Never mind. I'm an interfering old busybody, and this is not the time or place for it. Are you okay to go on?"

Refocusing on the job at hand was probably the best thing to do. Lex cleared his throat and ignored the last exchange. "The universe is in another reality. Once I step through, this world doesn't matter anymore."

"Hey Lex," the Lois construct stepped forward, "are you going to rescue us?" Before Lex could save anything, she slipped back into character. "For a change?"

Even Perry glared at her for that, but it was a resigned look.

Lois switched again, "Thank you. For just now, and for what you're going to do."

Lex tightened his lips, surprised and, perhaps, a bit moved, but not willing to admit it.

"What will happen to us?" Clark looked between Lois and Lex. "When our... when the..."

Obviously, Clark wasn't asking for himself. Clark never asked for himself. But Lex didn't have an answer.

"How can we help?" Lois asked, not waiting.

"Come back to the apartment with me, and," Lex snorted, "keep my doppelganger from taking over the world."

That drew some smiles from the other three.

"Apartment?" Clark asked, than answered himself. "Professor Browning. The necklace."

"But the gem didn't do---" Lois cut herself off. "It did. It created us."

Talking with the constructs was just **wrong**. They weren't real, and Lex hated the interaction that made him think of them as independent people. They weren't any more real than any of his dream-creations. And wasn't **that** a thought. This wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare. Lex wished he had skipped going to the Planet. Though if the two of them had faded while Lex was barely inside the world, it would all have been for naught. Lex didn't want to prolong this and he finally just left. The constructs, of course, came with him, and Perry stayed behind. Perry, would, however, check the apartment every so often and if for some reason they didn't come back, he would seal the necklace and sink it to the bottom of the ocean. Or something drastic like that.

... ... ...

 

When everything was settled in the real world, Lex stepped through an old blue gem into a different world. He looked around him, eyes narrowing. "Old Roman city, my ass. Clark, you idiot."

It was, in some ways, the right time period, but the wrong location entirely. From his own research, Lex had already figured out what it probably was, but he still thought Clark was an imbecile for mistaking it.

Though 24 centuries had passed since its demise, Lex felt a shiver run through him as he stood in the streets of Babylon.

The people started gathering, just as Clark said they would. Some tried to talk to him, to mock him for getting caught or just to find out who he was, but Lex didn't respond to those people, just gave them the 'you're not important enough for me to correspond with' look and they stopped trying. Lex stood straight and tall, waiting until there was a small crowd. Then he spoke, "I would talk to the elders of your city."

A man separated himself from the crowd and came forward, "You can talk to me."

Lex snorted softly. The man had the appearance of a statesman, mid-50s, authoritative... but he wasn't a major power player. Or at least not the ones he wanted to deal with. Lex let his eyes drift through the crowd. One by one, he picked out those who **were** power players. He counted five. Looking behind him, Lex glanced up at the building. Yes, there on the ledge, there were the other two. Lex turned back to the statesman. "I will talk to your elders, none other."

The man started to say something, but was interrupted by a shout and a couple of figures barreling through the crowd.

"Lex!" Clark pushed through, approaching him with both joy and apprehension in his eyes. Lois was right next to him, her gaze more skeptical. This pair **was** the real pair. Lex could feel it in them.

Lex shot the reporter a glare full of hate, and it stopped Clark in his tracks. Lois took a couple more steps, then stopped herself. She glanced between the two of them and her eyebrows rose. Lex could see her say something to Clark but didn't hear what. He imagined it was something arch and biting.

Another figure moved through the crowd, and Lex turned to face him. It was one of the people he'd marked out earlier, almost definitely one of the elders and Lex instantly gave him his full attention and respect.

"Lex, as in 'Alexander'?" the man asked. He made a small motion with his hand and the statesman bowed and faded into the background.

Lex bowed as well, both for respect of power, and acknowledgement of the truth of his namesake. "Not a descendent."

"Of body, perhaps, yet there is a resemblance." The elder smiled. "Alexander conquered us, yet would also have renewed us, our third rebirth to greatness."

"Instead, he died here, on the steps of your temple," Lex replied.

"And his successor abandoned us, ordered us to leave our city."

Glancing across the horizon, Lex let his gaze sweep over all of the city, the gardens, the buildings, the people. "You obeyed the letter of the law." A serpent's grin, for Lex knew well how to skirt the edges. "You transfigured yourselves. All that was left in the real world were a few collapsed buildings. Yet here... here you thrive."

"Babylon will never die again, as long as we are here."

"How many miles to Babylon?" Lex quoted softly, "Three-score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, there and back again. If your heels are nimble and light, You will get there by candle-light."

The elder returned the serpent's grin, tempered by time. "They remember us still."

"Oh yes."

"That is good to know." The elder nodded back, acknowledging power to power. "What did you wish to speak to us of?"

Lex glanced at Clark and Lois, "I would bargain for passage back for myself and two others."

Clark started to say something, a protest about the others no doubt, but Lois shushed him again. She seemed to have a better grasp of the delicate position Lex had at the moment. No surprise. Clark probably would normally have done better, but he obviously wasn't thinking so much as reacting.

The elder had lost his smile. "It is not so easily done, to return. Getting here is what it was designed for."

"I know," Lex nodded. He stretched out his hand, tracing the connections from himself back through to the construct left in the real world. With the slightest of prods, he encouraged the doorway to glow, showing its sturdy and solid composition -- a one-way door, with the barest of cracks where the line to his construct snaked through. This was, of course, only a representation of what it was... but it worked.

The audience around them murmured, surprised. Respect was now a part of their interest in him, rather than the simple curiosity there had been before.

"If we aided you, what would you give us?"

"I would be your gate-keeper, for as long as my mortal life remains," Lex said simply. He waved his hand out to the crowd, "For the last several hundred years, you have only gotten those who accidently came through, with no preparation, no expectation, bringing with them their unhappiness and their worries and their fears. With a gate-keeper, though my time be short compared to yours, you will, for at least a while, have again people who know what they do. You will have the scholars and minds who will give anything to come to Babylon, knowing full well what they do. You will have the dreamers whose lives on Earth are nothing but here it will be everything. You will have people who **choose** their lives here."

The elder in front of Lex was nodding, but another voice spoke, "Not enough."

Lex twisted to see the pair on the balcony above him. They displayed a bit of their own power, and walked down through the air as if they were on stairs. The others from the crowd shifted forward until all seven of them were before him.

"It is not enough. To open the barrier as much as would be needed to return you would cost us resources you cannot comprehend."

Not entirely true; Lex comprehended fairly well. If it was easy, people would be going back and forth all the time. He'd hoped, however, that having a gate-keeper would be enough of an offer. So be it. "Then I offer challenge."

One of the circle who hadn't spoken before quirked an eyebrow at him. "Challenge?" she asked, her gaze going up and down him.

Lex knew he wasn't a muscle-bound idiot -- involuntarily, his own eye drifted to Clark before returning. "Shifting, adapting, creating, whatever you call it here." Lex stood in a confident stance and let his gaze touch on each of the seven in turn. "It is traditional, is it not?"

Half the circle scowled at him while the other half smiled. The crowd around them murmured in approval and anticipation.

"It is. Though it has been long indeed since one entered who **could** give challenge. You would face our champion?" The same lady responded who had spoken before.

Internally, Lex winced, though he didn't let it show. He'd hoped to avoid that direct of a question. "I will face whomever you choose to send against me." He really hoped it **wasn't** their champion. As good as he was in his own world of make-believe, these were people who had made it their home for over two thousand years. That was the riskiest gamble of all this; that the people here would play fairly. They hadn't, exactly, with Lois and Clark and the other accidental members, but Lex knew more, was a deliberate guest, and had things to offer.

The lady smiled wider, her eyes showing her delight at his answer. The other circle members seemed to approve as well, and Lex relaxed just a touch.

From the crowd, there was a cackle, "He looks so brave, doesn't he? Yet inside, he fears..." The crowd parted for a figure making her way through.

That voice... Lex's breath caught and he froze as he saw clearly what was before him. The stuff of nightmares, that memory. Ten years in the grave, and she haunted him still.

"Don't worry, child, you won't be facing **me** ," the old lady grinned at him, out of character and revealing what she was, but Lex was still caught in the illusion and without the power to throw it off.

"Cassandra?" Clark approached, his voice happy and open, filled with surprise and wonder.

The image of Cassandra turned to him, her eyebrows rising. "Interesting. A shared past yet with such very different views and memories..."

There was no way that bitch was going to rummage through Clark's memories. Lex took every fiber of himself that normally was wide open and interactive with his dream world, producing unconscious constructs and conversations and simulations that were real to him, and twisted them shut, blocking his projections and leaving him blind. And when he figured out what he'd done, he opened them wide again and threw a net over Clark and another one over Lois, blocking their access to the world but also preventing them from being read. Leaving only the one corner that was tied to the doppelgangers on Earth. He tried to do something similar for himself, but it was hard to design something that would let him interact outside the box while keeping himself isolated inside.

"Hey!" Lois squawked, obviously feeling the effects. Clark seemed mostly oblivious.

The illusion around the old lady faded as a much younger, and prettier woman spun to face him in amazement.

"Leave them alone," Lex gritted out, struggling to hold onto his nets.

The woman approached him. "You figured that out, just from my illusion?" She smiled, a wide grin that split her face in perfect white teeth. "There is an easier way," she offered, holding out her hand.

Lex hesitated, yet there were easier ways to kill him here and this was probably not traitorous. When he touched her hand, it was like stepping into a holographic world; diagrams, wiring, labels, maps, routes,... everything laid out and identified, clearly patterned. People were there, but they weren't as important as knowing the connections between them. The air was lit with the energies that bound them with the world and the world with itself. Everything Lex had struggled for years to teach himself, thinking it was only his dream world, there, in a manual to study and learn. Lex almost lost himself in it, there was so much that was new and fascinating. But there was a tug on his net from Lois trying to free herself, and Lex remembered what he was there for.

Turning his attention to the lady, Lex was startled to realize that he knew her name - Ashlultum - and quite a bit about her. "You were born here?" he asked to verify, astonished.

"I was." Her eyes twinkled at him, "as were many during the last two thousand years."

"But..." Okay, it was stupid of him to protest it. It was obviously right **here**. But 'here' was something Lex was used to only thinking of as a dream. Looking at her, Ash fit into this world, melded with it, was part of it. She wasn't as solid as people from his world, but she wasn't a construct either. And she had a sortof veil around her, shifting with the light, melding with the world but protecting her... or protecting others from her. Lex realized that the unconscious interactions with the world could be a two-way street here, and not always fun for those near the people without control. He studied the shifting veil for a moment, figuring how it drew out. It allowed contact without imposition, a world interaction that was protection and buffer at the same time. Ash had let him in through the buffer so he could learn and see the world as she did, but normally it was fairly stable once made. With a few manipulations to the diagrams around him lit up by her aid, it was fairly easy to construct a similar one for himself. Putting one over Lois and Clark, however, would be a bit more challenging.

Lex disassembled his net over Lois -- a big, blocky thing resembling a set of armor, or an iron maiden for those trapped inside. Lois breathed a sigh of relief when he had it off. She obviously had made a connection with the world in her time here, could do basic interactions and wasn't comfortable cut off from it. Lex respun a new protection, touching her lightly to give the veil an anchor and then backing quickly away. It was too easy to read people here, using this, and he didn't want to know Lois that well.

For Clark... Lex took down the net and puzzled over his one-time friend. Clark was very solid in the world, but the world swirled around him and would not take hold. It was if he could pass through a dream without even knowing it was there. Maybe Lex hadn't had to worry about what Ash could have read from Clark. Even so, better not to take chances. He made a new veil for Clark, anchoring it more by his familiarity with the subject than by what he could sense.

When everything was finished, Lex was reluctant to let go of Ash's hand. He knew that while practice would allow him to see the same sort of things, this, right now, was only granted to him through her. However, he'd never relied on anybody else in his life, and he wasn't going to now. He dropped her hand. The vision fell through his fingers like sand, as did his connection with Ash. When Lex blinked into a more normal vision, he felt alone, a feeling near to what he'd felt the first time Clark had turned from him.

Ash's brown eyes were afire with passion as she stared at him, her mouth slightly open. "I want him," she breathed, and turned to the elders. "I will take this challenge. He **learns** ; like no other I've ever met. He saw what I could see and he took it in and formed it into his own. Our new Alexander, like the old, was not born here but he **fits** here. This challenge is mine."

The elder who had almost taken Lex's first offer frowned. "Ashlultum, if you take the challenge, he will fail."

Lex stuffed down his first instinct to protest.

Ash smiled, "I do not think so. You have seen what I have to offer. You have not seen what **he** does."

An invisible touch down his body, light caress, one sense rolling down the edges of his shield. Lex caught his breath, wanting what Ash had to offer.

"Lex."

It was a whisper upon the wind, not even heard with ears but slipped through the edges of reality. It was the whisper that had called him into dreams so many--so few--nights ago; a lifetime ago, a moment before.

Lex looked to where Clark was standing. Not so far away physically, but a million miles in their lives.

At this moment, though, Clark seemed like he wanted to crawl through those million miles and break through and save Lex from Ash. There was worry, hope, anguish, and blatant jealousy in those green eyes. Lex hadn't ever seen such a look from Clark before, even when they were young. It tore at Lex. Yet it was only because Clark had learned **his** secrets; had invaded his life and dreams; had come in where Lex never expected him and **took** that refuge from him.

Turning away from Clark with a snap, Lex took on the challenge that was handed him. "I will face Ash. And I will win."

"So be it," an Elder declared. "The match will be in one rotation in the sixth field. Release for Alexander and two others of his choosing."

The crowd started to disperse, chattering eagerly for the spectacle they would see. Ash grinned at Lex, "I will show you the basics of what the challenge will comprise."

"And you'll trust her to show you?" Lois stood with her hands on her hips. "Aren't you going to be fighting her?"

Lex snorted softly -- winning was not Ash's main objective, though she would fight to the best of her ability. Cheating was not on the agenda. Though to be fair, Lois hadn't seen what they had been through in those minutes of connection. Lex said simply, "I trust Ash."

Clark stirred, obviously unhappy at the statement and Lex's conviction in it. Before he could say something, though, another voice hesitantly broke in.

"Excuse me." A middle-aged man with a beard and the look of a scholar spoke.

Lex winced, hard. He'd known he would have to talk to the others, but he hated it. As much as he hated announcing layoffs at a company, this was even worse. "I am sorry, Professor Browning, but I cannot negotiate for your or the others return, too much time has passed." He held the gaze for a long moment, radiating the sincerity and truth of what he said, and then Lex looked out to the others gathered nearby.

It was easy to pick out the original Earth refugees. Though most had changed their clothes and had adapted into the culture, there was a certain look in their eyes as they watched him, as they listened. Bodies on edge, tensions high. A yearning for what they had long given up. They all had a slightly hungry, desperate look to them, as if a possibility unlooked for was dangling in front of their faces and they didn't know if it wouldn't be better to reach out and grab or to let alone. Mostly scholars, none of them were aggressive enough to challenge Lex's statement directly.

However, both Ash and the Elder who had said 'not enough' to Lex's offer turned to look at him in surprise.

"Too much time?" the Elder asked. "The Gate is always present. We just don't have the resources to activate it without sacrifice."

Clark stirred at 'sacrifice'. Lex waved him down without directly looking at him -- it was just a mode of speech. Not all sacrifices were physical.

Something about that speech rang true and yet was obviously wrong. Lex tapped his lip thoughtfully, "Is it something Babylon has forgotten over the centuries? Or ever known. Was this an unintentional side-effect when the wizards created the gate? They had made it to be one-way, made their choice to leave and preserve Babylon. Was there even supposed to be a gate **left** in place?" It was entirely possible it had been done originally just so that the disappearance of an entire city-state would not be remarked on. They left dream material there designed to compress down and fade out after time had passed. Enough time and enough reality to satisfy those who interacted with the city. Lex could see that happening -- people supposedly moving out of the great city to the new Mecca over time, but really, their constructs were simply fading out. The buildings having enough structure to last, but crumpling much sooner than a real one would -- at a time when nobody was left to notice or wonder.

It was an incredible work of wizardry. Or whatever one wanted to call those ancient engineers. Spirit-walking was known in many cultures all over the world, and these people had adapted it to their own purpose and crossed over. They had not meant, ever, to return. Had they meant to leave a gate open? Originally, maybe, for those who had to anchor it on the outside and come through after. And they could not close it, so they buried the gem, hid it, counted on time to destroy it. Yet instead it was found, and the generations after the first may only have known about the gate after the first person stumbled through. Lex wondered how many gems there had been originally.

Lex turned back to where he'd let the image of the door fade out. Concentrating, he re-engaged it and enlarged the section where his line snaked through. "To bring people and objects over, this world trades mass and energy into the real world, creating constructs identical in every way except they are only dreams -- mobile images of us. They move around like normal people, they seem like real people, in many ways, they are our shadows, our dreams, they are us. But the difference between this world and that world is that while here real people thrive, over there images break down under the weight of reality. Five days... and the constructs fade. When the constructs fade, there is no longer any connection between the worlds, and the door snaps shut again. But while the connection exists... while our dreams tie us still to the real world and the real world lives in our dreams, then all that is needed is to force open the door wide enough for the exchange to take place again. The constructs hold open our spot in the world. Without that spot, we cannot physically return."

The elders looked at the image, stunned. "But... we have sent people out before."

"How many years ago?" Lex asked. "And did they return? You **can** send people out... but without the transfer connection, they would not last in our world." He thought about how to say it. "Think of this world as a lesser mass world, similar to a light-weight gravity planet. A person from a heavy mass world, such as Earth, can live here easily, though not adapted as well. Here, Earthlings are bulkier, more solid, not as easily fluid or changeable, probably also living a longer life-span. However, to move things from this universe back to Earth... the original matter here is crushed by the weight of reality." Lex held up his hand and created a solid dream apple, more than illusion. "This apple, while perfectly real here, is yet spun of delicate fibers of this world. Bring it into the mass of Earth, and it will collapse, folding within itself to only what it had as a base." Lex let the apple fold itself into a pip. He'd actually tried that years before, with some success and some failure, so could speak with some authority.

"The longer a person is here, the more they adapt to this world, and lose their place in ours. Without something holding that spot open, reserving the original mass, even an original object cannot last. Our world is so based in what is known as scientific laws, that things that go against those laws are only transitory at best, where here, they thrive and grow. Objects that leave Earth have left the definition that makes up and holds Earth, and cannot be reintroduced successfully without rewriting the code to let them back in." Lex had just mixed about three or four different metaphors and images there, but he couldn't help it. He was still thinking this through and pulling out what he could to make sense of it.

The people were looking rather aghast, perhaps in memory of those they'd sent through. Lex was a little squeamish himself thinking about it. At least, though, they hadn't deliberately lied to those who came over. They didn't mention the timeline, because they hadn't known about it.

"Five days?" came a whisper.

Lex fought not to let his other feelings show and projected only sympathy and regret, as he could. Lex looked directly at the Professor. "I am sorry. Your construct faded from the real world several days ago." Lex pointed at Lois and Clark, "Theirs have but a day remaining." He expanded the image to show the faint lines from them also going to the door, but these lines were broken and static-y. There was no line showing from the Professor.

Clark's eyes widened. "But we've been here for five days..." Then Clark winced, obviously remembering what he'd been doing in that time instead of trying to get help.

Lex almost rolled his eyes but managed to stop himself. "I met with your doppelgangers earlier and reinforced the patterns. They should hold for awhile longer." Though Clark's doppelganger hadn't needed as much reinforcement as Lois'. For the first time, Lex wondered if Clark's original home planet was not from another world in their galaxy, but rather possibly from a side dimension instead. As to Earth as Earth was to this world. Clark broke scientific laws on a regular basis on Earth, and this world seemed not to touch him.

"Ah!" Lois exclaimed. "That's what happened. I felt it, and I was suddenly in Perry's office, but it was like a weird dream..." She glanced sharply at Lex, snapping her mouth shut.

Lex wondered how much of what happened she had experienced and remembered. "Perry and I have been working on the problem since Clark contacted me." The half-lie came smoothly to his lips, instinctively hiding the full reality.

Clark carefully kept his own mouth shut, and he flinched at the glare that Lex couldn't help sending his way.

Turning again to the Professor, Lex put on his most HR-managerial look, combining the real sympathy with the 'this is the way it is' attitude that helped people accept job loss, without coming back and suing LuthorCorp. Lex tried hard not to reduce workforces, but as large as his company was, sometimes it was unavoidable. "I am sorry," Lex repeated, "but your life is here now."

The Professor visibly drew himself together, hope given and taken away in the same instant. "I... had already thought it was." He bowed his head for a moment, before looking up again, "My cat...?"

Lex nodded, "She has been retrieved from your home and my people are looking for a good family for her now. I promise, she will be well cared for."

"My sister..."

Lex spread his hands, "The construct faded out with none to see. You are currently reported as missing. I could, potentially, fake your death so that she will have closure...?"

"I..." the Professor hesitated, obviously distressed.

"Think about it," Lex advised. And then he turned to the others who had gathered around him, each wanting to know about their families, their situations, the ones they had left behind. Lex gave them as much information as he had, as much as Perry had gathered in the two days that they had made their plans. It was not enough, but it was more than they had had. Some were enraged, others despaired, few accepted. But it didn't matter for as soon as he left, they would once more be stuck in Babylon.

Lois stepped up to his side and started taking notes. The group should have resented her for going home where they could not, but Lois was an expert and was able to work it so they accepted her instead. Deftly switching their thoughts from 'what if' to active participation in what they **could** do. Lois asked in quiet sympathy what things they would like checked on, people to be cared for, personal items to possibly be retrieved, messages in some way to their loved ones with as little hurt as possible. It was a nearly impossible job, and Lois took it on.

Lex glanced at the pad of paper she was writing on, and raised an eyebrow.

"It helps me concentrate," Lois defensively explained. "I know the paper's not real."

Obviously, she'd been spending her time productively, learning how to manipulate the substance of the world. Unlike how Clark had been spending his. Lex frowned, quickly turning his thoughts. "We might be able to make it real."

"How?" Lois asked in surprise. "You just said -- or is it just people?"

"It all reduces, which a person can't survive for any great length of time. For paper, though, it can be done with enough material and substance as the base. I once brought over a glass sculpture that in this world would have massed the equivalent of a mountain, but came over lighter than polymer." It had taken him almost a year to work that out.

It was Lois' turn to raise her eyebrows. "That thing on the side table outside your office? I've always wondered about that."

"That's why I put it there." Lex grinned briefly his shark's grin, remembering many an enjoyed moment as the intelligent visitors who noticed were baffled by the unusual properties of something not quite right in the real world.

Getting back to current problems, Lex considered how much base material he had available that could be transferred. "If I used all of the penthouse, I could translate two pieces of paper to real material. Thin pieces; rice paper? That would extend it more. If I threw in the Montana Ranch and the island resort..." Lex nodded. "Go ahead, Ms. Lane. I can get enough for what you need if they want to write notes."

Clark finally spoke up, "Lex, not the castle..." His green eyes were dark and sorrowful.

Lex snorted, "That's already gone. Not a stone remains." He glared at Clark, reminded of his grievance. "Back off, farmer boy. You do not want me angry right now, and the more you talk, the madder I get."

Lois raised an eyebrow. "I really, really need to hear about what happened when you 'contacted' each other. Somehow, I don't think much anymore of the first story I heard."

Clark turned a very solid red, while Lex snorted. "Not now, not ever, Ms. Lane."

The silence around them was awkward for a moment before Ash stepped in. She took Lex's arm and guided him out of the group. "As fascinating as this is, we are on a deadline for the competition, and all this won't mean anything if you don't win. So let me show you what we do here."

Lex nodded at Lois while ignoring Clark. He allowed Ash's touch to guide him away.

"Wait, Lex. I'm coming too." Clark moved up to his side, walking next to them.

Closing his eyes, Lex stopped short. Before he could erupt, though, Ash stepped between them. "Can't you see you're disturbing him? Just **feel** the emotions roiling around him. He's got to do a challenge in less than a span, and now is not the time for anything else."

Roiling emotions wasn't a good thing, no matter how good Ash's abilities. Lex tramped down, hard, on his shield and everything else that was him.

Clark's mouth tightened, "I want to protect him."

Ash raised an elegant eyebrow. "He is not in danger," she paused dramatically, "from me." She looked Clark up and down. "If you want to protect him, you might look a little closer to home."

Wondering absently if picking up on modern tongues was one of Ash's gifts -- reading the people she interacted with and smoothly changing by their unconscious cues, Lex finally stepped into the verbal battle. "Go away, Clark. Seriously. Just... leave." Clamping down on his emotions had left only the basics, and he was tired of all the Clark drama. Lex loved him with all that he was, but loving Clark was an incredibly high maintenance task. Especially when Clark's attention was focused on Lex. The protective side of Clark had never gone away, even when Clark hated Lex. Now that Clark thought something had changed, it was even more annoying, because nothing had changed for Lex.

Something within Lex's words finally got through, and Clark looked at Lex with that old wounded look. Sixteen again, and Clark realized he wasn't the absolute center of Lex's universe. It hadn't even been anything big the first time, but that look of hurt and betrayal had always stuck with Lex. Sometimes Lex wondered if he hadn't made the Room of Doom to make up for it, to prove how much Clark meant to him. Though if that was why he'd made the room, it had back-fired rather spectacularly. They had both been less than mature, back then.

Lex started walking again, with Ash at his side, and Clark stayed where he was, left behind.

... ... ...

 

After they had turned a corner and were out of Clark's sight, Ash stopped and waited for Lex to stop with her. She raised an elegant eyebrow. "You are hard on him."

Lex grimaced. With their connection and Ash's ability to read the emanations, Lex couldn't conceal his feelings from her. As much as Lex hated Clark right now and was angry at him for his deception... he still loved him too. He always had; it was why his dream-world accepted Clark in. Lex didn't know how to reconcile his anger and his love right now. He was used to how things were before between them -- it was easy to deal with Clark when Clark hated him. However, Lex didn't know what to do with this new Clark except to drive him away.

"Yet I don't know your story, and as I told him, this is not the time. Your confusion will not help you to win." Ash shrugged, a smooth motion that dismissed Clark and put them back to the current task.

"The challenge will be about what is the most valuable to Babylon." She gestured at the ground and a small circle formed. She stepped onto it and Lex did as well. It rose into the air with them, and then moved forward. "Two competitors work separately to create something -- it can be anything from a piece of art to a new product to resources for the city. When the creations are completed, the Elders judge on the relative merits and one is picked to be incorporated into our world. The other is broken back down into the components, to be used as power -- in this case, the power to return you and your friends back. The amount of energy needed will actually be more than what a competition can provide, but if your creation is judged the winner, the Elders will find it elsewhere." Ash grinned, "And the people whose projects were scheduled to have that energy will complain."

"That sounds familiar," Lex noted with a returned grin. Corporations were always dealing with resource allocation, and transferring funding around always enraged somebody. But if the relative value was worth the transfer, then dealing with ruffled feathers and project setbacks also had to be done. It's what he had counted on, with his presentation to the Babylon Elders.

"The question is, what is valuable to Babylon?" Ash asked softly, her gaze across the city.

Lex grimaced. He would have liked to have had more time here to explore, to learn that, but, "The constructs are fading." The timing, was, perhaps his biggest gamble. He'd originally planned on doing at least a basic walk-through before his challenge, but Lois' collapse worried him.

"You said they had a day."

"I reinforced their patterns. I don't know if that really is enough, or if my being in here will break down the reinforcement faster. It is, at this point, guess-work." Something Lex wouldn't normally admit, however Ash was somebody he trusted, soul-deep. Their connection back on the plaza had been real, and Lex realized how very lucky he was that she should have reached out to him. This task could have been over before it began, without her support.

Ash was silent for a bit, then she stopped the disk so that they hovered above the city. It was a magnificent view, almost like being in the penthouse above Metropolis, only this was Babylon. Lex could see Nebuchadnezzar's palace, and what he thought was the Etemenanki ziggurat. Hanging gardens were very much in evidence around the city. Apparently, the inhabitants had embraced the concept, though history showed the original famous ones were probably not in the original Babylon. This city, though, had taken it for their own. In his worlds' history, much of the city had been razed in the two hundred years between Nebuchasdnessar and Alexander. When these people transferred what had been rebuilt of Alexander's time, they had not only restored Babylon's former greatness, they also expanded upon it. Keeping the historical and adding on through the centuries, improving with the ages as well, probably at least in some way based on what they learned from the involuntary immigrants.

Expanding his sight to see into the structure in that Tron-like way, Lex could see that many of the older buildings, such as the palace, were made of reality, their structure thick and heavy in his view, unyielding and solid. Scattered throughout the city were also obviously newer structures, and yet, the ones built within the city also felt more solid than they should, like they absorbed some of the weight of the real by touching the original. On the edges of the city, where more fanciful structures rose above the city walls, and trees grew in ways that defied gravity, dream-world construct was the norm. This very much was a mixing of the worlds.

"Win or lose," Ash said, "your story will have the literary crowds enraptured for decades. I think you've single-handedly created a new arch-type of fiction -- the great romantic rescue. It will be greater than even the Epic of Gilgamesh."

Lex blinked.

"A young man lost in our world, cries out for help. His Lover beyond the Veil comes to rescue him -- not only handsome and brave, also the reincarnation of our greatest hero and a natural wizard in our world. Overcoming all obstacles, including our world's greatest champion, they come together. After a tremendous battle in which dragons are defeated and serpents pinned, the two lovers reunite and then leave our world together, never to return. Except in sequels."

Lex blinked several times. "He's not my lover."

Solemnly nodding, Ash silently made it clear she didn't believe a word of it. Then she laughed, "Even if you're not, the play-wrights, the authors, the song-writers... they'll make it so. You made quite an impression on everybody out there, including the High Council."

"I'm not Alexander the Great."

"Lex the Awesome."

Lex snorted. "Lex Luthor, Villain of the Ages."

"Only with a different story. In this one, you're the hero."

It was a nice thought. Lex wondered if there was an alternate universe out there where it was so. He switched the conversation back. "How much time do we have before the match?"

Ash also returned to seriousness. "In your time, a couple of hours. And then the competition itself will be about five hours."

As Lex stirred uneasily, Ash turned up a side of her mouth. "I will ask a couple of my friends to watch over your friends. Knowing what the problem is... I think we can ensure that the reinforcement holds. As long as the connections are still open, we can send energy back through and shore up the constructs."

Lex was uneasy about letting people have that sort of connection with Lois and Clark -- he rather thought it would be something like what Ash and he had done -- yet if that was the price to be paid, it would have to be.

Ash went on, "Normally, most people would spend these hours practicing. The match will be about actual **creation** rather than illusion. What is made has to be substantial and real, not just imagery or ideas. There are other competitions or projects where illusionists work and then the engineers create from the imagery, but for this, it has to be real."

Lex frowned. "To create something real is not a few hours work."

Her delighted laugh flowed over the city. "Real for **our** world, Lex. Not yours." She held up her hands and an apple formed on each palm. They were beautiful, rich, lovely to look at... and yet there was something odd about one of them.

Squinting at the apple on the right, Lex turned his head to look at it sideways, and then straight on again. He shook his head, "It's... it is there and not there. I can see it," he touched it, "I can feel it, but it **isn't** there."

"Illusion." Ash tossed the apple up and caught it again. "This is what almost everybody can do. They can form a thought, and shape it, and make it for all to see. But it has no substance, and could not sustain us."

Her expression grew serious, "I know, to you, Lex, those of us living here are but illusions ourselves, and we would fade in your world. But here, we are very real, and we must sustain ourselves as do normal people. We were human once in your world, and we are human in this world. We live now in a different set of rules and we have adapted to such. That does not mean that we are dreams, and that our lives are perfect. We eat, sleep, cry, and laugh. We must work, and we must play to survive.

"The first settlers had a hard time of it. For all that they thought of before the transition, they did not anticipate everything. Babylon was once the trade capital of the world, though we were shunned after Alexander's death. When we came here... they suffered. They had not brought enough resources, food, agriculture, herds beyond the city. Many people starved, as the wizards struggled to create what they had not brought.

"This is not the Babylon of 2500 years ago, as some of your scholars have thought we were. We are Babylon, and we have worked hard to preserve what we were. But we have also grown. We adapted to this world, and we live within it. We are a mix of your world and this one, and what we value lies in what will bring us growth -- in mind, spirit, or body."

She tossed the illusion apple away and took a bite out of the other. After she swallowed, she handed it to him. "Creation shapes to our reality. This apple is our reality, the illusion, though pretty, is not. Most people have a hard time with creating a reality." Laughing, she shook her head, "You, however, already think of us as dreams, and so when you are creating what you think of as illusion, you automatically shape it to what is our reality. That is a very unique talent. You obviously have spent a lot of time spirit-walking in our world."

Lex took a bite of the apple, feeling the firm flesh, the rich juices, the strong taste. He thought of the Smallville fairs where the Kents used to bring their produce, and the summers when apples were plentiful. When Clark would bring the boxes to drop off at houses in town, and swing by the castle to visit. Lex didn't answer Ash's oblique question, instead asking one of his own, "Do you have contact with other people?"

"In this world? We used to." Ash waved to one area of town where Lex could just see a totem peeking out between buildings. "Spirit walkers, dream speakers, trance talkers... all the cultures of the world used to have fairly regular contact with their own sections here. There are many peoples out here, though not all are human. However, our contact was mostly through the people still on Earth, who relayed and were our contacts. When the people of Earth stopped believing and stopped teaching... we lost them. We've never learned how to contact them on our own, and so are cut off. Sometimes, people go out in exploration tours to try and find out what lies in the world beyond. It's not like exploring the Americas, however, and we could easily never find them again."

Lex startled a bit when Ash mentioned the Americas.

Ash saw it. "Do not make the mistake that some have, of thinking we know nothing about your world and all of it would be valuable to us." She snorted, "One scholar long ago tried to give us a train. It was a failure; not only because he did not know how to visualize it properly, but because he did not take the time to realize we had our own means of transportation." She waved a hand at a portion of town where something like a glass tube showed people traveling through it much as they were upon the disk.

Ash smiled, "This disk, actually, is illegal to use in town. We have strict air-travel enforcement laws. The elders will not, however, deny me its use, particularly to show you around." She nodded to him, and Lex braced himself as the disk once again started moving through the air. They covered an elliptical route out to the edges of the city, and Lex paid careful attention to what he could see of the city. The mix of the old with new and the fantasy element to some of it was amazing.

"How many miles to Babylon?" Lex quoted softly, "Three-score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, there and back again. If your heels are nimble and light, You will get there by candle-light." It was the poem he had quoted earlier, and though he now had visited Babylon and traveled through it, it was still true. Wish fulfillment, fantasy, dreams. This was really all that. And more than he had dreamed of.

... ... ...

 

After the hours passed, the travelers were together again. Well, at least gathered in the same location. Lex could see Clark and Lois standing with the other onlookers in the stadium, but he ignored them carefully.

The challenge was being held outside the city where they had "fields" of land that brimmed with potential, ready for basic creation. These trials were apparently held fairly often among themselves, yet it was the outsider in the midst that created the crowds of people surrounding them. From the little Lex had heard before they moved in, Ash was correct that they already regarded him as a hero. Without Lex having done a thing except be an idiot. He shook his head. If this was all it took to gain people's respect... maybe he wasn't jealous of Superman after all.

"Are the contestants ready?"

"I am," Ash answered from across the way where her acre was situated. Her voice amplified through Babylonian technology that was not quite magic nor science, rather a mixture of both.

Lex simply nodded, his attention returning to the field.

"Then, begin. You have two spans to complete your work for judgment."

Reaching out, Lex gathered in and tasted the power that existed in the field. It was raw, shapeless energy. Much like what had been left after he'd destroyed the castle, but this energy had never been built into anything before. It was new, grown fresh, full of potential and possibilities. It normally was a matter of some effort to create things that would stay in the dream world -- Lex had to put himself into it. He hadn't realized how literal that was back when it was all just a dream. Working with the provided power would be both easier and harder.

What was truly hard was figuring out what to make. What was it that the current-day Babylon would value? As Ash had shown him in their whirlwind trip around the city, this was not the same place from 24 centuries before. They had kept much of the old, for they revered their past, but they had also advanced with technology and science, in their own way, in their new world. Making something like a computer or a robot would not be the wonder it might have been 24 centuries ago -- they already were aware of the concepts, and their engineers worked on their own designs.

There were, though, some things they still needed, as did Lex's own world. His world was still working on the problem, made worse in recent years of excess. Babylon might benefit from their mistakes.

Lex took a portion of energy within his hand and he wove with it a seed. He packed the seed with the genetic material of decades of research and centuries of selective breeding, until it was the best seed it could be. Then he planted the seed within the iron-rich fertilized ground that he'd also formed beneath his feet. Then he moved over to create another seed, and another. Behind him, the first sprouts of corn and wheat started to poke their noses out from the soil.

While his fields grew as he walked over the land, on the other side a barn rose. This barn did not hold cows or horses, though Lex had been tempted. No, Babylon had those already, and truth be told, better stock than existed in their world. Instead, he pulled from the cultures that had not been known, and the worlds that had not yet visited. Some travelers had attempted to describe the New World animals, but their recreations had not been a success. So Lex created them, two by two, feeling a little like Noah and unashamed of the comparison. Lamas, alpaca, ostriches, emu. Their accommodations were built precisely to what they needed, dietary requirements and space and structure. Lists and handbooks, detailed instructions on their care were placed inside the barn, next to the equipment and supplies. Most of that would have to be adapted later to this world's rules of science, but at least it gave them a starting point.

As Lex walked on, the corn grew up around him. Vast swaths of tall green stalks. Sixty varieties, all with different properties. There was the standard yellow and white corn for eating, there was the harder corn for popping, there were even a few of the ornamentals because they were so beautiful. He could not grow them all here, but Lex also made a small warehouse with seeds of more varieties. They all had different bacterial and fungal resistances, and growing seasons that varied so that the agriculturists could take them and breed what would be most valuable in this land. As the years went by, and diseases mutated, having different strains available was the key to never having a whole season wiped out. Similarly, the wheat. Wheat had just barely been discovered when Babylon had left Earth, and its high protein count wasn't as well known. This world lived still on mostly barley, though it was barley that had been highly advanced over the two thousand years.

Potatoes grew, and pumpkins. Sugar and cocoa and coffee. Chili peppers, though they may not thank him for that later. Tomatoes and peanuts. Soybeans and shitake mushrooms. A lot of the foods of the Americas, and what also he knew from other countries.

An aviary for some of the birds and insects that were pollinators, with all their benefits and hazards carefully written out and detailed in the manuals. Butterflies, brilliant and colorful. Moths, quiet and dull, yet both served their purpose in the cycle of life. Earthworms. Lizards.

A small scientific clean room for bacteria that were needed in the soils, yet would need to be studied by Babylonian scientists before they were released into their world. Lex almost started on vaccinations before he stopped himself. This world probably had their own way of dealing with disease, and he was growing tired.

There was only a small patch of his land left. Lex wavered as he stood over it. He thought about putting in some flowers, some fruits. Maybe a fountain. With a mocking grin at himself, he shaped it instead into a sign that would introduce people to this new land of riches.

"Time is up. Competitors, stop your work."

Lex couldn't help laughing. It sounded like he was on the Food Network, rather than in ancient Babylon. Or maybe he was just a little punchy.

He stood there, silent while the elders and the statesmen poured around him, inspecting his creations. He could hear them exclaiming, particularly when they found the manuals, but he couldn't work up the effort to be interested.

"Lex, are you okay?" A hand on his elbow, and he looked down at Lois, who was staring at him worriedly.

"Fine," he reassured her. Reminded, he looked for Clark. The former farmer stood near them, gazing up at the sign that had been created last. When Clark turned to him, Lex had to look away, unable to meet the naked feelings in those eyes. Perhaps he shouldn't have put up the 'Kent Farm' sign over the crops.

"Congratulations, Lex!" Ash pushed through the crowds and hugged him tightly.

Lex blinked, bringing his arms up automatically, but puzzled.

"Didn't you hear...?" Ash stopped abruptly and brought her hands up to Lex's face, studying him intently.

She spun around, "Rihat! They have to go back to their own world, NOW! Gather Shu and Ia and whoever else you need, but that Gate must be opened now or it will be too late."

Automatically, Lex reached out to feel the threads tying Clark and Lois to their counterparts. They felt okay, still solid. "They have enough time."

"They do, you don't." Ash pointed at his own cord, which Lex didn't even see at first.

"But he just came over!" One of the statesman exclaimed, which saved Lex from a similar remark, and Lois too from the look on her face.

"He poured himself into the creation," Ash said softly. "He used more than the energy that was there, he put himself into it, and the construct on the other side has nothing left to sustain it." She paused, troubled. "Lex... if you **want** to stay here, we would welcome you."

"More than welcome," one of the Elders spoke. "You are already one of us, the way that you can work with our world and how you think of all. You are our Alexander, come back to us, and we would be honored if you would stay."

It... was very tempting. What was there for him on the other side? More work, more pain, more trouble. Here, there was a world ready to welcome him. To these people, he was a hero. He could live here, easily, and it seemed that he had talents that made him a superman in this world. Would Clark go back to Krypton if he had the choice?

Almost involuntarily, Lex looked at Clark.

"No, Lex," Clark whispered, his eyes almost blue in their distress. "Please. I know I haven't been the best to you, but please, come home. I..." He gulped, his eyes dashing briefly over to Lois before returning to Lex. "I love you."

And wasn't that just the worst lie of all. Lex looked out over the farmland he'd created for Babylon, and knew that though he longed for it, he couldn't stay. He turned back to Ash, "I am sorry, Ashlultum, but I have not yet finished with my life there. Perhaps, in time, I shall come back."

Ash smiled, "A tale to rival Gilgamesh's. I will miss you."

"Three-score and ten," Lex reached out to clasp her hand. "I have candlelight, and I have nimble feet. I know the way to Babylon."

Shaking her head, Ash embraced him again. "Fare thee well, Alexander." She looked at Clark, "Take care of him." She looked at Lois, "Watch over them both."

Lois nodded, "I suspect it will involve some pounding of heads, but as best I can."

"You are a brave woman." With a somewhat wicked glint, Ash went over to Lois and kissed her full on the lips.

As the three outlanders stood there in surprise, one of the people Ash had sent off came up, "We're ready."

Ash nodded and stood back. With a quick ceremony, a gate appeared before them, elegant and magnificent, with runes and cuneiform and hieroglyphs. Nothing like the simple door that Lex had used as his own imagery, though it probably deserved the ceremony. Power was poured into the gates from the circle of elders, feeding off of reserves of energy, taking all of the land used for Ash's side of the competition and quite a bit more besides. They had not lied, when they said it would not be easy. The residual powers forced all the native onlookers back until only the three from the other world stood before it.

"Wait," Lex said suddenly, "Your papers." He looked over at Lois' notebook, where she'd filled it with all the messages from those who could not go home.

Lois looked at him in disbelief, "I can't believe you'd stop this for that."

Lex's face and jaw tightened.

"Calm down, Hero," Lois sighed. "It's alright. It's already taken care of." Lois waved the book in question in the air. "Ash's friends helped with it while you were at the competition."

"They were able to turn it real?"

"Eventually. They all took turns putting in something until we had it all done." Lois shrugged. "We're lucky Ash has a lot of friends."

Lex reached out and touched the book, verifying for himself that it did have the mass to pass through. As he did so, he swayed, and Clark caught him, steadying him.

Clark looked out to the Gate, "We have to go, now."

"It is ready," an elder said, sweat pouring down her face. She ignored it. "Fare thee well, travelers."

Lex shook off Clark's support and bowed to them with the utmost respect. Babylon.

They bowed back to him.

Then the three stepped through the gate.

... ... ...

 

"Lex? Lex, can you hear me?"

Déjà vu all over again. Only this time, the voice wasn't just in his head. Lex pried his eyes open and promptly shut them against the light.

"I'll get it." Lex heard Lois' voice and then there was a click.

Lex opened his eyes again to relative darkness. It was daylight outside, light coming in through the curtains, but it was dark enough not to hurt. It also wasn't dark enough not to see Clark hovering by the bed, Lex's hand in his, a concerned look on his face.

He'd been hovering for hours, now, he and Lois both, after Lex had collapsed where he'd been working on Professor Browning's computer. Lex remembered mocking Clark for caring about a construct, and Clark's shrugging reply. All the hours since he'd stepped through the crystal were there, a little remote and blurred, but there. The construct and he were the same after all. Which meant that Clark and Lois also remembered their constructs' memories.

Lex jerked his hand out from Clark's and rolled away. The bed, luckily, was centered in the room. With one smooth action, Lex flung off the sheets and got out, on the other side from Clark. "Don't touch me, you fucker," he growled.

Clark stared at him, mouth agape.

Stalking out of the room, brushing past Lois, Lex made a bee-line for the study. There, he picked up the necklace, studying the rich blue gem. It was muted now. Lex could feel the pull, but it wasn't as strong and he knew where the dividing line was. He held himself in this world, with only a fleeting wisp of regret for what might have been in the other. Stuffing the necklace in his pocket, he turned towards the door.

"Lex, wait!" Clark stood there between them.

Narrowing his eyes, Lex looked murder at the handsome young man. "Listen, Farmboy, because I'm only going to say this once. I didn't say anything inside as a fight in Babylon would have jeopardized our chances for getting out, but there are no problems here. I **NEVER** want to see you again. Ever. Your name is going to be stripped from any and all LuthorCorp functions. If the Daily Planet sends a reporter to cover announcements, I'm going to demand anybody but you. My security will have orders to escort you out if you even touch foot on a single one of our properties. If I have to get a court order, I will. But this is the final and last time we will **ever** meet."

Brushing by a stunned Clark, Lex opened the front door.

"Lex, wait."

This time, the voice wasn't Clark's, and Lex hesitated, his hand on the door frame, his body straining towards the outdoors, away from Clark.

"Lex, what happened? Completely off-record, I promise. But..." Lois came up and touched him gently on his arm. "Thank you. Thank you for getting us out." She glanced back to Clark, "I thought I'd figured out what had happened between you two that Clark wouldn't tell me the first night, but now... Lex, I just want to know."

Curiosity and a drive to know was something that Lex always respected. Didn't always grant, especially to nosy reporters, but he respected it. Lex turned around. He stood still in the doorway, but his gaze pinned Clark inside. "That first night, your wonderful upright moral compass of small-town values did **not** tell me it wasn't a dream."

"I tried!" Clark burst out, hands clenching by his side. "You wouldn't listen!"

"Not very damn hard!" Lex hissed. He tried to control his rage; this wasn't his house to smash. "I quote, 'Oh hell; it's just a dream, right?'"

"Clark?" Lois had her hand up to her mouth, her eyes wide, understanding flooding through.

Clark flushed a solid red. Lex could see him formulating and throwing out several lines, as the reporter realized each of them would only get him in more trouble. Finally, he came out with one, "Lex, I love you. I didn't realize it before, but I do now. Please..." he took a step forward.

Lex took a step backwards through the door. "You do **not** get to say that! Not now, not ever. Considering what you did, I'm amazed you have the balls to even think it!" Lex turned to the street, his back to Clark. "Ms. Lane, you are still welcome at LuthorCorp press releases. But I never want to see your partner again." He walked out of the apartment, letting the door close between them. As it did so, he could hear Lois' voice raised against Clark. He smiled, and then let the expression drop. As satisfying as it was, it did nothing for the emptiness within him.

... ... ...

 

That night, Lex laughed at himself. He lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, tired, yet not wanting to go to sleep. Finally, he rolled over on his side and slipped into the half-sleep that let him start to dream and then to move into the dreamscape.

Thanks to the extra efforts of the people in Babylon, Lex's rooftop garden grotto was still intact. Lex walked through the paths, touching the leaves of all his extinct plants that he'd spent so much time researching. He was grateful that they hadn't been sacrificed, gone from the world a second time. Even if this wasn't the same world they had left.

When his meanderings arrived at the central area and his patio, Lex regarded it. Memories of Clark resting on one of those chairs, talking with him easily without bitterness or tension, Clark looking at him with eagerness and hunger in his eyes... Lex sighed. There were thousands of memories of dream-Clarks doing the same thing, yet knowing that this Clark had been **real** , that it really had been Clark sitting there, talking to him, kissing him, loving him... Lex put out a hand and melted the patio set into dream-essence.

Taking that energy, that essence, Lex molded it into some of the plants that he'd seen in Babylon. He didn't know if they were ones that had formerly existed or if they had been grown since. However, they didn't exist in the real world now, and were therefore worthy of his garden. On a smaller scale, he recreated his favorite of the hanging gardens he'd seen. It wasn't the biggest, most elaborate one, but it was the one he liked the best.

When all that was done, Lex looked at it and smiled. "Ashlultum." He reached out to the edges of his world, where the ends of his dreamscape ended and something else lay beyond and said again, "Ash."

There was a gentle knock on the edge of his dreamscape, and Lex opened up a door.

Ash came through, a delighted smile on her lips. "I hoped you'd remember!"

Lex smiled back. "I remember. There is more than one way to your world."

"And us to yours." Ash walked around the grotto, inspecting it closely. "It is no wonder that you fit in so well in Babylon, if this is what you create in your dreams."

Not about to get into the whole 'mental institution' tale with Ash, Lex simply shrugged, "It is what I do." Changing the topic, he asked, "Did they have any questions about the farm?"

"Lots," Ash replied with a twinkle. "You will not be surprised that no farmers or those who knew about farming have crossed through for several centuries. However, I told the researchers to keep studying what you gave us and to write up their questions in a week. That should weed out the most inane ones and prevent duplication."

Lex snorted at the 'weed out', but didn't make an issue of it. "Any pressing issues?"

Ash looked around, "Is there a table and chairs in this wonderland of yours?"

"Um." Lex looked at the hanging garden he'd just made from the ones that had been there. Then he shifted his landscape out, creating a small oval circle of space next to the brook, a little ways from where they were. There, he formed a rustic picnic bench; one without splinters. "This way."

Having felt the currents, Ash raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything as they sat down. She pulled out a sheaf of papers and laid them out. "These aren't all urgent, of course, but here's what floated to the top."

Deep in the midst of discussing fertilizers and manure, a wind blew through the grotto, sending some of the papers flying. Lex looked up with a frown, feeling for what the disturbance was. Then the disturbance walked in.

"Hi Lex, I wanted to come by..." Clark froze as he caught sight of Ash. "What is **she** doing here?" His voice growled in possessive jealousness and a bit of hurt.

Lex stood up. "I think the question is what the fuck are **you** doing here?"

Ash leaned back and laughed a little. "Alexander, you are not the only one who remembers their lessons." She nodded at Clark, "Very good -- you kept your dream-walking skills."

Ignoring Ash, Lex kept his gaze narrowed on Clark. "What part of 'I never want to see you again' did you not understand?"

Clark sighed. "Lex, we should talk. Please. I know I should have told you sooner, but---"

Lex cut him off. "I'm not interested in hearing it, and you obviously haven't learned a damn thing, barging in without even the curtsey to knock. True, I left the door unsealed when Ash came in, but it doesn't give you the right to just come right in. I let you get away with it too much at the castle and you took it for your God-Given Right. Well, this is not eight years ago, and the castle is gone! Leave my property, leave my mind, leave my self. Clark -- **GO AWAY**."

The hurt and surprise on Clark's face came close to making Lex relent, but he hardened his intent. He would not go through that again. Pushing out, Lex shifted the world around Clark, moving his door to encompass and then snap around the younger man, expelling him back to the dream world.

"Lovers' quarrel?" Ash inquired dryly.

Lex sat down and flipped to the next sheet of paper. "Now, about the emus..."

Ash snorted. "If you want to pretend you don't care, you probably shouldn't have 'Lex + Clark' written in the stars."

Involuntarily, Lex glanced up. Sure enough, he'd forgotten to reset the sky from a few nights back when he was playing with it. It looked like the doodles on the side of a high-schooler's notebook and was just as embarrassing. With a scowl, he wiped it and brought back the standard constellation set.

Switching topics, Lex asked, "Can people in your world shift their bodies?"

"Almost everybody can do an illusion," Ash replied. "But I don't think that's what you mean."

"One of the people I'm thinking would do well in your world is paralyzed. She can't move from her neck down, and it's killing her by degrees. The young woman has a sharp mind, but most of her potential is wasted in our world."

Ash tapped her lips, thinking. "A real shift. I could do it to myself, so could a few other of our top conjurors. To do it to somebody else to such a degree..." Ash thought for a bit. "I think we can. No guarantees on something like that, but since the injury occurred in your world, we have more to work with on our end that we would normally. She would have to know the risks, however."

"Congenital defect, not injury, but same effect." Lex nodded. "How about disease or cancer, can those be cured?"

"It would depend on what was actually wrong. Some things, especially with a transition between the worlds, we can take care of. We don't, however, want to be a drop-off point for all your charity cases. And we have hazards of our own. We might live in what you think of as a dream world, but we are very real and so is what happens to us."

Lex nodded again, and they discussed particulars.

... ... ...

 

The next few days--and nights--were relatively uneventful. Lex busied himself with setting up a trust and a hierarchy for the Gate-Keeper position for after he was gone, and also set out to find and contact the descendents of people who used to have other-world contacts, Amerindians being one of the more obvious choices. Or rather, Lex set up projects and assigned personnel to them. Some of it, he would do himself, but it was much more efficient to have the basic work done by others. They wouldn't remark on the oddity of some of the requests. LuthorCorp had worked on much stranger things in the time his father had been head of it, and Lex hadn't modified the overall structure that much.

Or he hadn't thought he had changed it. When the first reports of adjustments in LuthorCorp started coming across his desk, it took Lex a few minutes to remember all the internal reviews and safety checks he'd ordered before he walked into the gem. His last gift to Clark, it was to have been. But now that both he and Clark were back, and the world went on... Lex hesitated over the paperwork for a long time.

He didn't want to give Clark the satisfaction, yet it was also ridiculous for him to send them back just to spite Clark. Sending them back now would also show an inconsistency in his leadership that would not be good for the company. The changes to the workplaces would slow down production and efficiency, however would also reduce accidents and illegal use of the facilities for other projects. Lionel had... encouraged... his employees' initiative, as long as he himself could deny it honestly when the law came in and profit from it when they didn't. It was logical, and Lex had encouraged it himself -- or at least not discouraged it. Signing these reports and supporting the internal reviews, though, would shut those portions of LuthorCorp down.

Lex cancelled his next few meetings and stared at the papers for a very long time before finally deciding what to do about them.

While nothing else recently had brought Daily Planet minions to his office, signing that paperwork did. Lois came by asking for an interview the very next day. Of course, the interview was only part of it. She was still furious at Clark, and grateful to Lex, and wanted to talk to him about Babylon.

When he had railed against Clark, Lex had not expected Lois to take his accusations so strongly. Hearing what she had to say, Lex almost wished he hadn't told Lois about it. He did wish the whole thing hadn't happened... but that was for his own liking of the status quo rather than anything against the sex. He had liked the sex. With an inward sigh, he set about taming Lois' anger towards Clark, without redirecting it onto himself.

The rest of the conversation went much better. Without the animosity that had always been between them, Lois proved to be a rather delightful companion. She was sharp-witted, intelligent, and had a rapid-fire delivery and give-and-take that Lex enjoyed. It reminded him of early conversations with Chloe in Smallville, before he'd become the bad guy among them.

It was, however, with some relief when Lois finally left.

Lex poured himself a drink and looked out over Metropolis and wondered when his life had changed without him noticing. Lois who had hated him, now liked him and chatted with him like a buddy. Did one act of rescuing really make that much difference? Where was the line between what he was a week ago and what he was five minutes ago? Lois said it was perception, and made her arguments. They were good arguments, logical for an investigative reporter who dealt regularly with humanity. However, Lex didn't buy it.

Even if he did believe, Lex didn't **want** Lois or Clark or any of them as friends. They were nice people... but nice people inevitably were disappointed in him. They thought **he** should be nice too and were horrified when he wasn't, despite Lex never having made any pretenses that he was anything but what he was. In the nice people world, there was no room for any error, any mess-ups, any learning. At least not for the likes of him. The looks of accusation and reproach as friends turned away were burned into his memory.

Lex tossed back his drink, barely noticing the burn down his throat. He looked out across the sky and thought about primary colors. Then he turned back to his desk and the work still to be done.

... ... ...

 

"Sir, I hate to disturb you..."

Lex sighed internally and soothed the security guard on the phone. It was the evening shift and they weren't used to dealing with him directly. However, they were normally competent and professional. This was obviously something not in the normal line of emergency incidents.

"It's Superman, sir."

That wasn't exactly different, but, "What about him?"

"He's... well, he's hovering outside your office window. We thought he was going to just look like he usually does and move on, but he's been there for almost 20 minutes. Just... hovering."

Lex pulled aside the drapes on his window, met Clark's gaze, and dropped the drapes again. "I'll take care of it. Thank you for reporting the situation." He hung up without actually breaking the phone, which Lex considered an accomplishment.

With a long-suffering sigh, Lex went to his balcony door and unlocked it. "You are a nuisance."

Clark opened the door and came in. "You won't let me in any other way."

"That was supposed to be a subtle hint. No, I take that back. It wasn't subtle, and it wasn't a hint. It was a giant huge sign posted saying ,'You're **NOT** Welcome Here.'"

"Lex, please, we've got to talk."

"You mean you want to talk. But I don't want to listen."

Shifting his stance, Clark put his hands on his hips in classic Superman pose. Lex didn't think he was doing it deliberately, but it did bring a different level to the conversation.

"Lois came back from the interview not hating me anymore. She said you told her I was only human, and she refused to tell me anything else." Clark raised his eyebrows, "Human, Lex?"

Lex had been confident of Lois' integrity, but Clark would have had to have been blind not to notice the shift in perception. Unfortunately. Lex wished he could lie, however, he wouldn't about this. "You are. For what she was holding against you, you are very much human."

Clark took a step towards him, his expression hopeful, and Lex retreated behind his desk trying to make it look smooth and not like a retreat. "It does not, however, mean that I don't hate you still."

"You soothe things over for me with Lois, but won't forgive me yourself?" Clark blinked. "Isn't it kindof the same thing?"

"No."

Clark blinked.

It really wasn't. Lois had to work with Clark, and she had to respect Superman. Clark relied on that friendship, clinging to its pretense of normality. Having Lois holding one little thing against Clark just because he was human enough to submit to temptation was a risk that the world could not afford. Lex's hatred, however, was nothing new.

This wasn't, however, something he could easily explain to Clark, nor something Clark would accept.

Lex sighed. "Fine. We'll talk. However, my security team is avidly watching their video feeds right now wondering what on earth Superman is doing in Lex Luthor's office and speculating on what we're talking about. We've been here long enough for a Superman lecture or something like it. So you are going to fly out, go rescue some old ladies, and come back invisibly in an hour. My penthouse door will be open."

Superman hesitated for a long moment, his eyes shifting from green to blue to green again. "You'll be there?" he finally asked. "The door will be open, and you'll be there, and we'll talk?"

"I promise," Lex replied, almost unthinkingly, before he cursed himself for the careless words. Just because he meant it, didn't mean he had to say it so sincerely.

There was a bright flash of Clark's smile; the wide one with all the teeth and sunny disposition that the Smallville youth had often used, yet the Metropolis reporter had shown less often. Then Superman flew out, carefully closing the door behind him.

Lex locked it. Then cursed himself, and Clark, and Lois, and Perry and Ash as well just for good measure. Going back to his desk, he finished up the things he'd been working on and shut down the computers for the night. Lex didn't want to go upstairs... but he knew he had little choice. If not now, it would be another time.

Upstairs, entering the penthouse, Lex headed straight for the drinks cabinet. He took out the orange juice and the vodka and poured himself a glass of orange juice. The vodka he splashed in the sink to make it seem like there was a fair amount in his drink. Then he paused. It was automatic habit to cover himself in dangerous situations by making people think he was drinking more than he was. With Clark, however, normal reflexes might backfire. After debating for a moment, Lex left everything out the way it was; he didn't feel like going to the trouble to think out a different strategy when he wasn't sure what Clark was going to do. While he was thinking of drinks, though... Lex got out a different bottle and poured it for Clark, leaving the glass on the top of the cabinet where it would be obvious it was Clark's.

Taking his orange juice, Lex looked around, debating between furniture types. If he sat at the desk, he would at least have the desk between him and Clark. However, most of their interactions were held from that same position and it would leave Clark in familiar territory. The couch was definitely out -- with Clark's current mood, Lex didn't trust him not to try snuggling. Lex shuddered -- that would be disastrous. The arm chair was made for relaxing and wasn't very easy to get in and out of; it would allow Clark too close access, while Lex would be trapped. The kitchen chairs were too informal, also giving farm-raised Clark the advantage.

While Lex was still trying to decide, Superman came in.

"Lex," Clark announced happily, as if everything had already been decided and they were best friends again.

"Not in that outfit," Lex growled, immediately taking the offensive. If he could force one thing, that would establish this as his territory. Once one concession was made, usually others followed, even if people didn't know they were doing it.

"What?"

"I'm not talking to you as Clark while you're in that stupid costume. Go and change first."

Clark looked over to the window, disconcerted. "Lex, I don't like flying in normal clothes, there are too many cameras in Metropolis."

Lex rolled his eyes and pointed to one of the guest rooms. "There are clothes that will fit you in the closet in there." Secretly, he was impressed that Clark had thought of cameras. Back in Smallville, security had not been one of Clark's strong points.

Eyes narrowed at Lex, Clark's gaze flipped between the door and Lex. Then he visibly made himself shake the suspicions off and he went into the room, closing the door behind him.

Taking a gulp of the orange juice, Lex decided standing was his best option. He walked over to a side table and put his drink down, freeing his hands. Of course, then he had the problem of what to do with them. Nervous, Lex ran a hand over his head. He stopped the gesture as soon as he realized he was doing it -- the old habit he thought he'd gotten rid of years back. For the first time in years, he wasn't sure what to expect. When Clark came out of that door, what was he going to say? To do? Lex had ideas, but they made him uneasy.

Lex wasn't sure if he was going to survive this encounter. Clark knew enough about him to figure out Lex's weakness. Lex's only chance was to keep Clark off-balance, overload those guilt-receptors and drive him out before Clark realized what he'd done.

"You keep clothes for me in your guest room..." Clark came out, an expression on his face as conflicted as Lex's thoughts.

"I keep a supply of clothes for all potential guests. I don't think you could use the size 5 red dress that was also in the closet."

"There weren't any red dresses like that one in any other size, which makes me think it's for a particular lady. And there weren't any plaid shirts in other sizes either."

Apparently, Clark had taken more time to scrutinize the contents of the closet than Lex was used to people doing. And he was right about the red dress. However, "You didn't wear the plaid."

Clark glanced down at the loose white dress shirt he'd put on over basic slacks. More casual than his reporter-wear, and more expensive, but it fit him well. He was shoeless, padding around in bare feet, which just added to the overall effect. "It's been awhile since I've been on the farm, Lex. And you had other clothes there too. Was this a test?"

Lex turned away, controlling his expression with long practice but still not wanting to face Clark. He had put options there. Options for something he never expected, but left the bits scattered throughout his life anyway. It was no test. However, he was interested in Clark's selection. It didn't fit any of the pigeon-holes Lex was used to sticking Clark into. People were not so cut and dried as to fit into every hole every time... yet there were certain patterns they tended to follow. Clark had veered outside of his patterns. And Lex knew damn well that Clark still wore plaid on the weekends sometimes. That he choose the dress shirt now, even informally... either he was unconsciously matching Lex, still in his work clothes, or he was rebelling against what he thought Lex expected.

"Never mind, stupid question," Clark sighed behind Lex. "Lex, I'm sorry. It was wrong of me not to tell you I was in your dreams, and wronger for me to keep going. There's no excuse I can give that can change that, but I'd really like to make it up to you. Please."

There was a note in Clark's voice that left Lex dryly suspecting that Clark was hoping the ‘make up to you' part would involve lots and lots of sex. He ignored that part in favor of a little mocking. "'Wronger'? Is that a new word?" Lex turned to face Clark.

Clark gave him that look. That look from back when they were young and Clark knew Lex was avoiding an issue. Early on, that look had been combined with gentle teasing and a willingness to play along. Later, it had become exasperation mixed with anger, then just the anger. This one started off with anger, but changed to confusion as Clark apparently remembered that he wasn't supposed to be enemies with Lex anymore.

Lex went to the bar and poured some vodka into his orange juice. He was entirely too sober for this conversation. "Your drink is there," Lex gestured at the glass he'd put out earlier.

Typically, Clark ignored it. "Lex, I've said I'm sorry! Why can't you accept it? If you still hated me, you wouldn't've talked Lois out of being mad at me. Lex, you can't **enjoy** our being enemies now -- there was so much of our friendship in your dreams. Why can't you let us take the chance for it to be real?"

Stiffening, Lex glared at Clark. "Because it's NOT real. Are you forgetting how much **you** hate **me**? How many articles you've written tearing apart the evils of Luthors? How much of LuthorCorp property Superman has destroyed? After ten years of your mistrust and animosity, you think you can turn around and be my friend just like that? I don't think so."

"Seven years," Clark muttered, almost under his breath.

Lex snorted, "Please. You never even trusted me at the start. I always---" Lex cut himself off; this wasn't a dream-Clark that he could tell his deepest feelings to. "You never trusted me," he repeated instead.

"Just because I didn't tell you my secret! Lex, I didn't tell anybody, it wasn't just you!" Clark burst out, years of frustration in his voice.

"Kyle, Phelan, Cyrus, Ian, Desiree, Ryan, Tina, Cassandra, Helen," Lex listed off several more names. "You told everybody you fought for and against! If they showed the least bit of odd powers, they were instantly in your confidence. Not to mention all the people who ‘accidently' learned it. The only people you didn't tell were your friends."

Clark's mouth was open. "How...?"

"Who the hell do you think paid off those people not to say anything after they got out of Smallville?" Lex snarled. "The ones that weren't dead or in a coma, that is. I have a fund that's purely for lifelong bribe material from your early years."

Clark shut his mouth and he gave a thoughtful stare to Lex. "So you're still protecting me, even after all I've done."

Lex could have kicked himself. That was not the direction he wanted Clark's thoughts to go. "Maybe it's your parents I don't want to see hurt."

Not very likely. That point definitely went to Clark, and the wide grin the other displayed showed he knew it. "My dad said once that you shouldn't live down to expectations. He was right."

If Lex had been drinking, he would have choked. As it was, he carefully put his drink down. "Your father."

Clark's grin faded, as he sensed something wrong. "Um..." Lex could see Clark trying to figure out his memories.

"That was Perry White in the Planet's office a week ago. In front of your doppelganger." Lex studied Clark. "Lois and I remember almost everything that our others did. When they were reabsorbed into us, in our memories it was just as if we had been there, though ... less of us, as if we'd been on mild drugs during that time. You, however... You weren't yourself, not fully. And you don't remember."

With a grimace, Clark waved his hand. "I don't. Not very well. And from what I've heard, there was a lot more of me missing -- my other self didn't even know I was Superman!"

Lex nodded. "That supports my hypothesis."

"Hypothesis?" Clark sounded apprehensive.

"It's not strong enough for a theory yet, and there's no way to test it. However, from some of the evidence, I suspect that Krypton wasn't just another world in another solar system, I think it was another world in a different universe. On the other side of ours from the one that Babylon inhabits." Everything was adding up to it. "Your powers do not conform to our understanding of physics and relativity, yet still have a pattern of their own. The extra density you displayed inside the dream world, as if there was something that just couldn't be touched. The time-shifting appearances of Jor-El to the native Amerindians and Smallville -- I've often suspected that some of the conflicting information he gave you was because he was speaking from different points in his life. The creatures that lived in the rock are more like a Buckaroo Banzai movie than anything from Mars. The Phantom Zone itself even makes use of pocket dimensions -- which isn't beyond possibility, however it makes more sense to be constructed if the makers already know about crossing boundaries."

As he talked, Lex could see Clark rolling the idea around in his head, not liking it, but not able to say anything against it. Then Clark's expression shifted. "God-damn it, Luthor, stop changing the subject!"

This time, Lex wasn't fast enough to control himself, and he knew that his surprise and hurt showed on his face. He turned away, walking to a window and blindly staring out.

Behind him, Clark sighed. "Lex, I'm sorry."

Lex refrained from pointing out that Clark apparently didn't know what the word meant. There would be no old movie jokes in this world, in this reality. But he really **hadn't** changed the subject deliberately. Trying to figure out the differences and layers of commonality between universes and dimensions was interesting. More interesting than Clark's attempt at friendship that would surely fail.

A hand rested gently on Lex's shoulder, and he instinctively flinched away, putting distance again between him and Clark. And a couple of pieces of furniture.

On the other side, Clark let his hand fall, his broken gaze following Lex around the room. "I'm not... I wasn't..."

No, Clark wouldn't hurt Lex. Not physically. But the proximity alone was enough to send Lex through the wringer. "Clark. It's not going to work. You've put too many years into this for one ‘I'm sorry' to repair everything. Pack up your good intentions and leave." _Leave me alone._ Lex wanted his world back. The one where everything made sense and he knew what was going on. It may not be the perfect world, but it was his.

"No, Lex," Clark said softly. "I'm not giving up this time. I've seen what's inside of you, and I know it's not what I've seen on the outside all these years. I used to know... but I'd forgotten. Or thought I'd imagined it. But you're there. You're really there, and I won't let you cover yourself up again."

Lex laughed harshly. "What makes you think this time will be any different? Oh, you'll be fine for awhile, but the first time Superman finds something wrong in a LuthorCorp plant, you'll be all over me, and your other self will be publishing stories about me. Are **you** planning to change too? Or is it just me that you want to change."

"So just don't **do** anything like that!" Clark yelled, ignoring the last two sentences. "You don't **have** to follow your dad's practices, Lex. And you obviously know it. All those internal reviews you started... if you'd been doing that all along, I wouldn't have had to write those articles."

"I thought I wasn't coming back," Lex snarled. Then wished he'd kept his mouth shut at the look on Clark's face.

"I guess it was also Perry that said your instincts are more to the good... Lex, why don't you follow them?"

With another snarl, Lex pointed at the window. "Get the hell out. I don't need you spouting off your platitudes at me, and I don't need you. You wanted to talk. We've talked. Obviously, you're **NOT** planning on changing anything but me. Apology NOT accepted. Now leave."

"Oh for Christ's sake..." Clark shook his head. "I think I do need that drink." He walked over to the bar and picked up the glass Lex had put out earlier. He took a sip and his expression changed. "What on Earth...?" Pulling the glass back, he looked at the drink and then over at Lex.

In spite of the current situation, Lex had to grin. The look on Clark's face was almost worth everything they'd been through. "Ambrosia."

Clark kept his gaze on Lex. "So what is it?"

"Strawberry-Kiwi Snapple juice. The processed fruit flavors were fairly easy to track down, and then it was mostly a matter of trying to find what you would have been exposed to in your formidable youth. Not something your mom would have kept around, but something a younger child would have found irresistible."

Clark took another sip, rolling it around in his mouth before swallowing. His eyes never leaving Lex. "You tracked this down. From a dream. You traced it all back, used that planet-sized brain of yours to figure out what **drink** I liked."

Lex shrugged, trying not to preen too obviously.

"I think..." Clark drank again. "I think I've forgotten I'm not dealing with a normal rational human being." He grabbed the vodka bottle and poured some into the glass with the rest of the Strawberry Kiwi.

Lex raised his eyebrows. Well, if orange juice and vodka was okay, that would probably work too.

"Obsessed megalomaniac, covering up a pathetic sense of self-worth with delusions of grandeur, brain too large for what you have to work with, horrible upbringing with no moral guide." Clark toasted Lex and then drank his improved ambrosia with only a small grimace.

"Grandeur isn't an illusion -- LuthorCorp is in the top forty world corporations and I'm on People Magazine's most eligible bachelor list. Again." Lex replied mildly. He didn't deny any of the rest of it.

Clark snorted. "Most eligible... After your annulment from Shelia Gordon came through. What was that one? After she tried to crush you in the robot assembly plant?"

"That was Taj. Shelia blew up the Porsche."

"Right." Clark grinned a little and then changed the subject, his smile dropping as he became serious. "I take it back."

Lex quelled a small shiver and tried to present only a normal inquisitiveness.

"I take back my apology." Clark put the glass down and advanced on Lex. "I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry at all."

This was... unexpected. Lex held his ground until Clark moved past all the furniture obstacles and was encroaching on his space. Too close for comfort. Lex backed up trying not to look like a retreat, but it was hard to disguise it as anything else. "I told you that an apology wouldn't do it."

"So you did." Clark put his hands on either side of the wall next to Lex's head. "You said a lot of things, both inside and outside the dream world. I wonder how much of it you meant. Or rather, which parts."

"I meant it when I said you should leave." Lex's heart was beating fast. This wasn't a Clark Kent that he was used to dealing with. This was Superman... without the do-gooder attitude.

"Sorting your truth from your lies has always been the problem. When I was young, I thought everything was truth. Later, I thought it was all lies. I forgot that you're more complicated than that. And... and I made some mistakes too, that I never admitted to. The world, though, isn't so black and white."

Clark folded his arms in around Lex, gathering him into his chest in a secure hold, pressing Lex's head lightly into Clark's chest. "I'm not sorry you thought I was a dream."

Warm. Solid. A mix of scents of cedar from Lex's closet and the wild air smell that Superman always had after flying around. Plus that musky odor that was both common to all men and uniquely Clark's. Lex breathed it in.

"I'm not sorry I went along with your dreams."

Lex's hand trembled where it rested on Clark's chest, where he'd thought to futilely fight him off. One of Clark's hands was cupped gently behind Lex's head, the other on the small of his back, holding him close. But not too tightly.

"I'm not sorry that I learned you love me in your dreams."

It hurt. It hurt so much. Lex stirred, moving his head just far enough to speak without being muffled in Clark's shirt. "You **hate** obsessions over you!"

Clark's grip tightened, just a fraction, before he loosened it again. "I was seventeen and I was scared. I... I saw your room and I panicked. But I shouldn't have said to you what I did."

"You were right."

"I don't think I was, but I was scared and too young to understand."

Lex snorted, opening his eyes and staring at the button in front of his nose. He closed his eyes again, letting his head rest on Clark's chest. "Marjorie Hanson. Jose Franco."

Clark paused. "They were obsessed with Superman. It's not the same thing. A lot of people are obsessed with him -- they don't know me."

"Sue Chan."

Lex could feel the shiver of revulsion that went through Clark. "She was stalking me!"

"And I'm not?" Lex shifted his head so that his ear was against Clark's chest and his mouth was in open air. Easier to breathe, easier to speak. Or so he pretended.

The laughter that moved Clark's body rocked Lex with it. "Of course you are. But you're **you** , Lex." Clark's large hand stroked Lex's skull, gentle over the skin. "You're not anybody else."

"So nobody else can do it, but it's okay if I'm obsessed and stalking you. Just getting this straight," Lex mocked.

"There's nothing straight about this." Clark paused, his hand stilling, "Er, pun not intended." Clark shifted, moving his body more in contact with Lex's, his hand down to around Lex's shoulder-blades, his head tucking in on top of Lex's head. "Lex, if somebody had just told me you were dreaming about sex with me every single night, I admit I probably wouldn't have reacted well."

"Not **EVERY** night!" Lex protested. Despite all evidence Clark had to the contrary, it really wasn't.

Clark ignored him. "But I wasn't told, I was **there**. Lex, yours was the only dream I was able to easily enter because you had built up a world that welcomed me in, and you loved me. Not Superman, not the reporter. But me."

"Chloe loved you."

Clark winced, a movement Lex could feel. "Chloe wasn't you," he replied softly, both his old guilt and his new commitment coming through in his voice. "Neither was Lana. Nor Lois. I admit I've been an idiot in the past -- always reaching for more than I could have, and making mistakes. Not seeing what was in front of my face, and holding people to impossible standards. I don't promise that I won't keep making mistakes... but this time, I'm sure that what I want is possible."

Lex dug his fingers into the shirt Clark was wearing, trying not to hope. "So I'm the next mistake."

"No! Geeze, Lex." With a sigh, Clark kissed the top of Lex's head, resting his lips there for longer than the kiss. "When you brought me into the barn and kissed me there... I hadn't expected it, yet everything about it was **right**. This isn't a mistake."

Some of his annoyance with Clark leaked through into Lex's voice. "It was a dream, of course it was right." Obviously Clark was having a hard time differentiating between fantasy and reality. But while he figured it out, Lex would stay in his arms. Just a bit longer.

"It was **your** dream," Clark whispered, his breath moving over Lex's skin. "For me... it was a dream I didn't know I had. But you kissed me and I knew. I knew what I had been missing all these years."

"It was a damn dream." Lex tried half-heartedly to push away from Clark. But Clark's arms encircled him and kept him close.

"You're not getting away from me. Not this time. That was one of the mistakes I made, thinking you'd react like a normal person." Clark's arms tightened, yet it felt more like he was protecting Lex, rather than imprisoning him. "You would never have told me in your life, and I get that why, Lex, I really do. And I'm sorry for being such an ass over the years that you thought your only choice was to follow your father's path and that I left you alone to do so. But I know now, and I'm **NOT** fucking sorry I know, and you know what? I'm not even sorry I didn't tell you.

"If I'd told you, you would have shut me out, or you would have worked with me as every inch the reluctant enemy, but I wouldn't ever have learned that you respect me enough to heed even a dream's fears. I wouldn't have learned that you don't like milksops. I wouldn't have learned about bondage." Clark paused at Lex's snort, but when Lex didn't say anything, he went on. "I wouldn't have learned that I love you. God, Lex, how could I ever be sorry for that?" His voice softened. "And you were happy. In your dreams, with me, you were happy."

"I'm still mad at you," Lex changed tactics. But even to his ears it wasn't very effective, not while he rested contentedly in Clark's arms and didn't struggle to free himself. This; this is why he feared Clark so much. One touch, one embrace, and he was undone. He could be angry at Clark all he wanted... from a distance. But when inside Clark's arms... Lex didn't really care about anything else. He wondered how Clark had figured it out.

"I know you are," Clark said gently. "And it's okay. You should be. I was a bad person for doing that to you. And I don't want to be a person who says the ends justify the means... but I really am not sorry. I know I should be, and I tried to sincerely apologize. But I honestly don't care. So you can still be mad at me for it because I deserve it. Just don't hate me too."

Trying to work through the logic in that set of thoughts was like navigating a maze without an exit. Lex shook his head, trying to clear it.

Clark stroked Lex's back and arms, exploring Lex's body without shifting out of the hug. Not so subtly switching to another mode. If reasoning wasn't working, it looked like Clark was going to try seducing next. Lex couldn't really find it in himself to object.

"Lex," Clark coaxed, maneuvering with soft touches, trying to urge Lex's head up, "Look at me. Please."

Lex was perfectly happy with his face in Clark's shirt, his eyes closed. He was also relatively safe there. But all things changed. Lex lifted his head, tilting up to Clark.

Slowly, Clark closed the distance, watching Lex warily, hungrily; wanting it and yet expecting Lex to bolt.

Lex didn't run, but he did close his eyes; he didn't want to see it. Clark's lips touched his. Lex wasn't sure, but he thought he made a noise. He gripped Clark's shirt, pressing in.

The noise Clark made in return was almost desperate. Clark nuzzled Lex's skin, opening his mouth and licking Lex's lips, demanding entry. As with all things Clark, Lex gave in. He let himself be plundered, taken, absorbed. Clark's need was insistent, his tongue and his body active on Lex's. The younger man might have intended to be careful, to go slowly, but when it came to it, his control was less than perfect. Lex didn't mind. It absolved him of responsibility, and it felt good.

Clark shoved a leg between Lex's thighs, pushing him harder up against the wall. Lex twisted out of the kiss, gasping for air and tilting his head back.

Presented with the opportunity, Clark went for the jugular. He nuzzled Lex's neck, sucking on the skin and licking it clean again. As Lex moaned, loosing rational thought, Clark smiled, the feel of the grin coming through, so close was he touching. "I remember that spot," Clark moved back a little and breathed his smug words onto the sensitized skin.

Lex thought about calling Clark some names. Instead, he moaned again. The sensations were everything. Clark's leg that he was humping, the strong solid body pressing on his, the wall behind him, fluids still mingled in his mouth where he could taste and feel the kiss, his neck being nibbled upon just where he loved it the most. Lex clenched his hands in Clark's shirt, probably ripping the fabric and not caring, just needing to **feel** it all.

Suddenly, Lex was dangling in the air, held up by Clark's hands on his hips and the press of the wall on his back. Lex gasped, not from fear, and wrapped his legs around Clark's upper thighs, his arms around his shoulders, pulling himself as close as he could.

With a satisfied chuckle, Clark tilted his head up and kept nibbling. "I like this angle..."

Lex jealously wondered for a moment if Lois had liked it too. This move seemed more for the benefit of a shorter woman. But Clark thrust against him, pushing Lex back into the wall and Lex forgot about comparisons.

Abandoning Lex's neck, Clark seemed to forget any plan of thought as he just kept pushing, rutting repetitively against Lex, lost in the sensations.

Lex's head thumped against the wall and he couldn't care less. With every thrust, every move, a tongue of fire swept through his body, over and over again. This was primal and raw, the need overwhelming all.

"Holy Mother of God, Lex..." Clark sounded drunk, his voice slurred and muffled as he brought his head back to Lex and licked and suckled his way down to Lex's collarbone. There, he ran into Lex's black dress shirt and he made a disgruntled noise, not finding the flesh he wanted.

The noise turned into a whine and Lex felt himself lowered.

"Lex, floor, stand."

It took Lex a moment before he figured that out and unwrapped his legs from Clark's, putting his feet on the ground and standing shakily, supported mostly by the wall.

Clark's hand flashed up and down, buttons flew, and Lex's chest was open to the air and to Clark, the edges of his shirt flapping in the breeze of Clark's move.

The noise Clark made this time was much more satisfied as he looked down upon his handiwork. He ran a reverent hand over Lex's skin, tracing down the sternum, moving his hand to over Lex's heart. The bright green eyes raised their view and met Lex's gaze.

With a strangled gasp, Lex closed his.

"Lex, don't. Don't hide away from me." Clark touched Lex's jaw with his other hand.

Slowly, reluctantly, Lex complied. He knew he could never go back from this. He wasn't used to hiding anything from his dream-Clarks and everything he felt was there, exposed, open, revealed.

Clark stopped breathing. Lex could **see** him not breathing; he felt Clark's hand, trembling on his cheek.

Exhaling shakily, Clark touched Lex's lip, right over the old scar.

It was Lex's turn to tremble.

Leaning in again, Clark replaced his hand with his lips, the kiss this time gentle and soft, tender and reassuring.

Something broken deep within Lex began to mend. He returned the kiss, participating in his fall. Or perhaps it was a rise to grace instead. He didn't know. But this. He had this, at least.

Disengaging the kiss yet not backing off, Clark brought both hands up to cup Lex's face, the wide fingers spreading out on cheekbones and alongside the eye-ridges. He leaned his forehead against Lex's and rested there, their breaths intermingling.

Somewhere along the way, Lex's hands had migrated down to Clark's hips. He moved one hand up again, through the casually-buttoned and slightly torn shirt to the flesh underneath. Caressing the muscled stomach, Lex wondered if this Clark was ticklish.

Clark huffed out a little laugh at the exploration and he pulled his face back to look tenderly at Lex. Then he stilled, his mouth turning down in a frown. "Lex, I'm real... you know that, right?"

Lex's mouth twitched, "Yes, I think I'm aware of that." He'd never heard of telepathy being a Kryptonian gift, but all things were possible. Clark could also just be really, really good at reading him.

"I don't want to be compared to them... Not any of your dreams -- this is me, and I'm the only one now."

Carefully restraining himself, Lex didn't mention that that was a fairly common speech from dream Clarks.

Apparently Clark read it off his face anyway. "Damn it," Clark said unhappily, "I'm competing with myself. How can I possibly compare with seven years of dreams?"

Lex slipped out from between the man and the wall and walked away from him. "You were doing pretty well there by not thinking about it."

In the middle of the room, Lex was enveloped from behind. Arms coming around him, a wide chest pressing into his back, soft hair brushing against his head.

Lex leaned back with a happy purr. "My bedroom is this way."

"Um..."

Incredulously, Lex turned in Clark's arms. "You weren't planning on going there?"

"Planning didn't have much to do with anything," Clark admitted. He drew in a deep breath, settling himself. "Whatever you want, Lex. Just..." Clark took another breath, "Don't shut me out again." He quirked a half-grin. "I know how to get into your dreams."

Lex snorted. The speech was all very good and heroic, but Lex bet that Clark would be most unhappy if Lex actually sent him away without sex. Luckily for Clark, though, Lex wasn't going to. He'd protested enough, and he was **hungry**. Raising his arms up, Lex tangled his hands in Clark's hair and tugged him down, meeting him with a kiss.

Clark returned it, relieved and eager.

They stepped together the remaining distance to the bedroom, a little dance on the way that involved sidestepping in sync, stumbling, eyes anywhere but where they were heading, and some laughter. And kissing. There was definitely much kissing involved.

Along the way, the shirts somehow disappeared. Which made the journey even longer with all that flesh to explore and caress. Inside the room, there was a pause in the dance as the two men also got rid of their pants.

Lex had the most work, having shoes on as well and needing to get rid of those first. He'd finished that task, and was cursing the world for being real and actually **needing** to take care of it, when he looked up to see Clark standing still. Clark wasn't looking at Lex but rather a point on the wall. Lex's first thought was x-ray vision and that he was about to be abandoned, then Lex remembered the new wall-mounted display that he'd just put up that day.

With a grimace, Lex stood up and padded to just behind Clark. "Don't worry, the frame is sealed. Nobody can get in there without the codes."

Clark didn't look away from the ancient necklace, his gaze focused on the side stone. "But you have the codes."

Lex's mouth turned downwards, his body stiffening before he made himself get rid of the tells. "Afraid that I'll use it to subjugate the world? Coerce people into doing my bidding? Create a world of easily-controlled doppelgangers?"

Finally, Clark turned around, his gaze locking on Lex, earnest worry there. "I'm afraid you'll go back to Babylon. To a people that love and respect you. Where your genius is acknowledged and you're the hero for what you did. Where nobody knows, or cares, who your father was."

Clark took a deep breath, looking scared and a little lost. "What is there for you in this world, compared to that?"

Lex bit back his first response, and his second. It was true enough that he wanted to go. Right now, he was keeping it as an option for 40, 50 years down the road.

However, while right now Lex didn't feel like he was yet done in this world, who knew how he might feel tomorrow? Especially if he and Clark fought. Lex knew he had a temper, and storming off with grand gestures was practically his modus operandi. Clark's concern was legitimate, and no trite answer, even a sappy one, would reassure him completely.

"I still need access to the stone," Lex said finally. "I hold a position of Gate-Keeper for Babylon, and we are working out details of people who can cross over. However, I am willing to work with Superman in protecting the gem. We have seen what can happen when the access is uncontrolled. The Fortress is about as secure as anything on Earth. I will need from you a guarantee of reasonable usage when negotiations are completed. Both now and future ones."

Clark stiffened, his shoulders going back and his body language subtly changing until it was Superman standing there, evaluating Lex's offer with serious blue eyes, exploring the possibilities. "You would do that?"

Lex had to hide a grin at the transformation. Butt-naked, hair completely messed up, sweat still marking tracks on his body, and yet it very definitely was Superman there. If Lex could get a picture of this, it would be the perfect cover for PlayGirl. No wall would be without the Superman!Exposed calendar of the year.

"Lex," Clark growled, "Knock it off."

Okay, he really hadn't been hiding the grin. Lex schooled his expression. "Yes, I would."

With another shift to the serious, Lex explained in superhero terms, leaving off the personal aspects. "If anybody else gained access to the stone... It could become another Phantom Zone, to Babylon's detriment. Or something used by an unscrupulous villain to get rid of those he didn't feel like dealing with. Or a mage might take it to study, potentially damaging both worlds if the research went badly.

"The stone has been safe until now because of obscurity and mystery. Now? Now there are three people who have been to Babylon and back, there are at least two others who knew the full plan, and dozens more who do not know why but were involved in researching it. It is as safe here as I am... but a determined person could get to it."

"Who else knows the details besides us?" Clark had been tracking the reasoning, evaluating it as Superman, and agreeing.

"Perry and Jimmy. Perry planned the break-in with me, and Jimmy knew you and Lois too well not to be brought in at the end. They've already been briefed and know the potential hazards. The researchers are a combination of Daily Planet staff and Protycle."

Clark blinked, "Protycle?"

Lex shrugged, waving off the concern. "One of my research companies, focused in historical data, without direct ties to LuthorCorp. I use it mostly for basic fact-finding. They're currently doing the primary digging to find old cultures Babylon might have had dream-walking contact with."

With a small shake, Clark switched out of Superman mode. "Brain the size of a planet," he muttered, and sat down on the bed, holding his hands out to Lex. "And just as paranoid. How many things do you work on at one time? How many things are always there, no matter what holds your current attention?"

Not bothering to respond to either of those not-quite-questions, Lex placed his hands in Clark's. He wasn't a small man, but his hands were engulfed in Clark's larger ones.

"What other things will have your attention tonight?" Clark asked, raising Lex's hands to his mouth.

"About as much as yours, I expect," Lex replied dryly, glancing out the window. "Do you want me to turn off the sound-proofing?"

Aghast, Clark froze with Lex's fingers at his lips. Blue eyes looked from Lex to the window and back again.

Lex reclaimed one hand and punched in a code on the wall computer. A low hum that had been ever-present but unobtrusive shut off. "Just in case."

Clark closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened then and focused beyond the walls of the room.

Standing there watching, Lex reflected that he'd never had a dream-Clark in his bedroom before. His office plenty of times -- it was a common Superman scenario. His rooftop grotto was pretty much made for fantasies, both real-life and in dreams. But he'd never been able to believe in a Clark in his bedroom.

Fantasies with Superman or Reporter!Clark were often full of antagonism, arguments that led to heated sex, or punishment. Rescue dreams were nice too. The early years were best for sweet, loving relationships that were more than sex alone. Though he liked the physical age of the current Clark better. He'd drilled himself just a little too well against under-age sex to willingly cross the boundary even in dreams.

The funny thing on that was it wasn't even a moral boundary, or at least not primarily. There had been an experience when he was a young teenager, and he and some others had crossed those boundaries... The only reason the police weren't involved was by the power of money and influence; both his father and some of the others. But the punishment from **them**... It wasn't like they gave a damn about rules either; it was the being so careless as to let it become public and a problem. After yet another set of friends gone from his life because of something he'd done, Lex had decided that was one boundary not worth breaking -- on either side of the equation. Though what he switched to wasn't any more discreet, rather the opposite, and yet more acquaintances disappeared. For other people, Lex's teenage years weren't a good time to have been his friend.

Lex had always worried that Clark would be one of those that disappeared. He'd been careless with Clark, wanting the friendship so badly that he broke his own rules for it, showing his care, forcing his attention, letting his father know his interest. He tried to disguise the interest with genuine curiosity over other things... but he never really succeeded. Belle Reve, Lex believed, had been more about Lionel wanting Lex to forget about Clark then about his dad's secrets. After all, the set up for it had started well before Lex even knew there was a secret to be found. It just didn't work as completely as Dear Dad had planned. And worse, had brought Clark even more directly into Lionel's sights than even Lex had done. It was hard to deflect Dad's interest when one was insane and rampaging and your best friend was trying to save you and not being cautious about it.

It may not have been what was intended, but that time in the institution **had** worked in driving Lex and Clark apart, so Lex gave credit to his dad for that. What Lex had done on the drugs was bad enough, but after he was out, Clark had even more secrets and more guilt to hide from Lex, and Lex wasn't as willing to push the boundaries with his dad as far as he had been. He put his attention into fighting his dad, which put the focus back on him and them, trying to leave Clark free... but it also lost him Clark, as he saw only what Lex was doing as Luthorian.

To protect them was to lose them. To not protect them was to lose them. Catch-22. Always had been, always would be.

"Lex."

A soft voice broke through Lex's thoughts. He looked down to Clark's sad green eyes.

"Lex, I'm right here." Clark tightened his grip on Lex's hand for emphasis. "I'm real."

Lex knew that. That's what worried him. He could deal with it later, though. He sat down on the bed next to Clark and leaned against him, turning to thread the fingers of his other hand through Clark's hair and tracing down his neck.

Automatically encircling him, Clark remarked, "I thought sure you were going to protest again."

"I'll protest tomorrow," Lex murmured.

Clark laughed, slightly forced as if he knew Lex might very well do that tomorrow.

And he would. But first... Lex sighed, not really wanting to, but knowing he should, especially if he was about to sleep with the world's biggest boy scout. "Clark, I knew it was you."

Nuzzling the side of Lex's head, Clark didn't react much. "One day, I'll have to see some of your other dreams."

The words were a bit of a segue, and Lex ignored them. "No, not a dream. I knew it really was you, not a dream."

That got Clark's attention and he pulled back to look at Lex, though he left his arms around him. "When I asked about the castle and how you made it."

Lex shrugged. That too. "When you reacted so badly to the kryptonite." More or less. Lex didn't feel like going through the whole reasoning.

Clark took his arm away and he shifted further back, staring at Lex. "You knew it was me," he said flatly.

"Yes."

"And you still had sex with me."

Lex forced a shark-grin, "Why wouldn't I?"

"You **accused** me..."

"You still didn't tell me," Lex pointed out.

Clark opened and closed his mouth and then gave a short laugh. "Lex, you over-controlling bastard, you're trying to get me to leave again." He shook his head. "First you try and make me think you're mad at me, then you try and get me mad at you. What is it with you?"

Huffing, Lex stood and turned his back to Clark. It had almost worked.

Behind him, he heard Clark also stand. Lex didn't move, even as arms circled around him and drew him back into a strong warm chest.

"I don't love a normal person," Clark whispered in his ear. "And that's all right because it's you and you're worth it. I left you to fend for yourself seven years ago, and now you don't believe I'll stay, but I will."

Lex gave it, at the most, three months before it got to be too much for Clark. Though part of him hoped it would be longer.

Clark sat down on the bed again, bringing Lex with him so that Lex was sitting on Clark's lap. Clark nuzzled Lex's neck and while one hand stayed possessively around Lex's waist, holding him close, the other explored up Lex's chest.

Lex let his head fall to one side and his body relax, enjoying the sensations. He'd made his last-gasp effort for the night.

"I'll prove it to you, Lex. I'm not going to let you hurt yourself anymore. I love you, and I'm going to make sure you love yourself too."

Lex didn't bother with a response. Instead he swung around so he was straddling Clark's thighs, and he leaned up for a kiss. If Clark was kissing, he couldn't be talking.

Clark returned it with interest, his arms coming up around Lex.

This kiss was gentler then their earlier ones. Clark was exploring without the heated sense of urgency. Closed lip pressure, the connection, lips moving on each other, sucking slightly. Moving the slightest of distances to nibble on Lex's lower lip. Lex parted his lips in invitation but waited for Clark. Clark took his time moving inside.

Kissing was something that Clark did well. Obviously, he'd had lots of practice. No, this wasn't a Farmboy fantasy with an innocent. It might be their first time together, but it wasn't actually the first time for either of them. Neither, though, was it a RedK Metropolis Summer boy. The restraint on the kisses was with the care that normally only the early years took.

"Lex, me!" Clark growled into Lex's mouth, biting down sharply on his lip.

Right. Lex shook himself and took some more action, thrusting his tongue in and turning the temperature up. He shifted his weight on Clark's thighs, rocking in time with his tongue.

Clark moaned, rocking up, tightening his grip on Lex. Slowly, he leaned back until he was lying on the covers with Lex on top, both of them still locked in the kiss.

In spite of the new position, neither changed their current goal -- there was still so much to learn and experience just from the contact they had now. Undulating against each other, mouths locked. A world within.

Mouth-to-mouth. How this all began... Lex breathed in Clark's breath and lived.

Clark shifted underneath until their dicks were lined up as they thrust against each other. Which was nice. Really nice. But Lex was going to come from this alone if they didn't back off some. Yet he couldn't seem to take the action to move, wrapped in the sensations. The thrusts got hotter, more urgent. They stopped kissing just so they could breathe. Staring into each other's faces, green eyes meeting blue, eyes wide, pupils dilated. The expression was either that of pain or rapture -- no wonder people tended to cross the line so often, with sex giving such mixed signals. Lex bit down on Clark's lip hard, knowing it wouldn't actually hurt him but needing to bite anyway.

With a cry, Clark thrust sharply up... and then vanished. Lex fell the two inches to the bed, but sideways instead of straight down, giving him a clue as to what happened, even if it was too fast for his senses to register. He raised his head and glared at the naked superhero panting next to the bed.

"Sorry," Clark got out between gasps, his hand tight around the base of his cock and his balls. "Too close."

Instead of admitting it was the case for him too, Lex lay back, running his hands over his body, tracing from the juncture between hip and waist up along the rips to his chest where he played with a nipple. His other hand stayed at his groin, consoling his penis for the loss of the hard flesh against it.

There was a gasp from beside the bed. "Lex, you're going to kill me."

Lex raised an eyebrow, "If I'd known all these years that that's all it took..."

Clark laughed and then was back beside him on the bed. His hands did their own exploration next to Lex's and Clark's mouth descended upon fingers and nipple both.

"Oooh," Lex breathed, closing his eyes from the sensory overload. Involuntarily, his hands stilled, waiting for the next touch, the next sense.

On his chest, Clark's tongue lavished Lex's nipple, periodically straying aside to nibble and lick Lex's fingers before returning.

Lex found himself making all sorts of embarrassing noises under the attention, and he forced himself to be quiet.

The attention stilled and then Lex felt breath upon his cheek. "Lex... come-on Lex," a familiar voice wheedled. "I need to know what you like. Keep telling me."

Swallowing, Lex tried to find a voice that wasn't a gasp or a moan. "You can manage," he managed, though the words were breathy and not his normal crisp syllables. Nor as complete a sentence as he'd been thinking.

Clark snorted. "Stubborn," he remarked fondly, and nipped at Lex's nose. He went from there over to Lex's ear and then across his scalp, tongue tracing the veins on the surface. One of his hands was on the other side of Lex's head, carefully bracing and gently stroking. The other was at the nipple his mouth had abandoned.

Still with his eyes closed, Lex brought his hands around Clark's back, tracing the strong muscles and the broad ribcage. He traced down the spine, feeling the vertebrae and Clark's arching movement into his hands.

"Lex," Clark said; hunger, need, and affection all wrapped in the one-syllable word. He rolled them onto their sides and his hands moved to Lex's back, repeating the movements Lex had made on him. His mouth moved down to Lex's neck, back to that spot that melted Lex every time.

With a sigh that went from his toes to his head, Lex relaxed, secure in Clark's arms.

"Mmmm," Clark responded by enveloping Lex even more, gathering him in and holding him close. His hand on Lex's back swept down to his waist dipping into the crack and then moving out to grip Lex's buttock firmly, pulling him in.

Lex stiffened, his eyes opening for the first time in a long time. He looked at the wall on the other side of the room and then forced himself to relax again. He could do this.

Clark's lips left his collarbone and he raised his head. "What is it?" Clark asked, the warm eyes soft and tender.

Distraction was always the best response. Lex kissed Clark, moving a hand between them to grasp Clark's penis. With his fingers, he explored. Over the years, there had been enough embarrassing incidents -- embarrassing, that is, for Clark; revealing for Lex -- for Lex to mostly know what the right size and shape of Clark's package was, though in his fantasies things tended to change based on what he'd been watching recently. Uncut -- that was a given, and Lex tried out some of the techniques he'd thought up. He was never quite sure, in fantasy, if what he imagined really did work or not. From the sounds Clark was making, obviously most of them did. Lex let himself smile.

Not one to simply lay back and let himself be taken, except in certain Farmboy fantasies, Clark moved just enough to get a hand down and do to Lex what Lex was doing to him. Excepting the obvious differences between cut and body hair.

Pulling out of the kiss, Clark looked between them, fascination upon his face. With another kiss to Lex's lips, Clark scooted down until he was at eye level with his enthrallment. Lex's hand had been forced to give up his grip on Clark as the other man moved, and he replaced that hand in Clark's hair.

With a sound of bliss, Clark leaned forward and swallowed Lex.

Lex almost jerked out of the bed, a cry involuntarily escaping him. His hips slammed painfully into Clark's face and teeth grazed where they shouldn't normally touch before he pulled out.

Clark coughed, and wiped his hand over his mouth, looking ruefully up at Lex, "If I could be hurt, I think that might have broken my nose. Are you okay?"

"Fine," Lex muttered between gulps of air. He was sweating freely, heat pouring off his body, and a little thing like a few pains didn't matter. "Most people hold the hips so that doesn't happen." And, okay, most people were too polite to jerk like that, but Lex hadn't expected it so suddenly. Clark's enthusiasm was Lex's undoing.

A low growl jerked Lex's attention back to Clark whose green eyes were blazing, matching his jealously perfectly. Lex had actually meant ‘most people' generically rather than specifically... but the jealously was an endearing trait.

Clark moved his head again, this time with a hand on Lex's pelvis. He licked up and down and around the shaft and basically drove Lex nuts. With Clark there to restrain him this time, Lex let himself thrash around more than he normally would. He tried to keep the sounds restrained, yet they still poured out. Lex jammed one hand into his mouth to muffle his cries, his head thrown back on the bed.

As Clark teased and tasted, his other hand moved around back to the other side, eagerly exploring the hole back there. At first, Lex didn't really notice, caught up in the sensations and that just added to them. When Clark slipped a finger in, though, Lex's mind caught up to his body and he instinctively twisted away.

"Lex?" Clark pulled off and looked up at him.

"Supplies -- drawer," Lex waved a hand in some direction, though he wasn't sure if it was the right way. As his heart raced, Lex rolled over and stared at the ceiling.

"Oh, right..." Clark apparently found the right drawer and pulled out a large bottle of lube, his mouth quirking into a grin. "

"You can never use too much lube," Lex said firmly. "This isn't a fantasy."

As Clark started to pour it in his hand, Lex stopped him. "Glove and condom."

"What?" Clark blinked innocent eyes at him.

"Haven't you ever practiced safe sex in your life?" Lex snapped. "I don't care if you're an alien -- glove and condom."

"You can't get pregnant," Clark protested, "And you can't get sick."

"I don't care. And for God's sake, it's not like it makes the least bit of difference to sensation. Why the hell **not** , when they're available? Macho bullshit, to go bareback."

At the speech, Clark's eyebrows were climbing off his face and he grinned with bemusement. "Lex, you're a romantic."

"Fuck you."

"Other way around," Clark purred. He got out one of the condoms and slipped it on, both of them watching avidly as his length was covered and revealed by the plastic outline.

To prove his point, Lex ran his fingers over the thin latex sheath and then gripped firmly. A couple of pumps later and Clark was crying out, pushing Lex's hand away. "Not yet!" He settled for a moment, then reached for the lube again.

"Glove!" Lex was panicking. In the hour between, he had taken the time to prepare, just in case, but still...

"What on Earth," Clark wrinkled his face in puzzlement, "is the glove for?"

Lex felt himself flushing, his embarrassment running over. This. This is why he liked fantasy. You didn't have to worry about things like this in fantasy. "God-damn-it, Clark," he enunciated slowly through gritted teeth, "Just do it!"

Clark blinked several times, enlightenment passing over his face before he turned red as well. Then he started laughing. "Ah, reality." He moved up to Lex and kissed him, holding Lex's face in his hands. The kisses wandered all over Lex's face before Lex finally kissed back, his mood lightening and his body relaxing.

"I guess," Clark kissed him some more, "I should have done some research on the internet first. But I didn't really think..."

Lex closed his eyes as Clark's lips moved over his lids. "It'll be fine." He didn't know if he said that to Clark or to himself.

"Ummm," Clark reluctantly pulled himself away. He put on a latex glove and squeezed a dollop of lube in his hand. "Is that enough?"

"More is always better. If you have to ask, it isn't." Lex's heart was pounding out of his chest. He rolled until he faced down, propped on his hands and knees. After a moment, he grabbed one of the pillows and put it under him. No magically raising the bed for the right support here. He bit his lip and waited.

The delay wasn't long before Clark's hand, the ungloved one, stroked down Lex's spine to his ass. With a pat on one cheek, the other hand touched him just **there**. Lex stifled his yelp. The lube had warmed up in Clark's hand, and he'd used a lot more. It was running down Lex's buttocks, in his crack, inside him... Lex shut his eyes and pretended it was an enema. It really wasn't that different, really. Until a finger pushed in and started to wiggle around.

With a bit-off whimper, Lex reminded himself that he was supposed to **like** this. It was his fantasy, after all. He forced himself to relax, to let the fingers into that area that only his doctor saw. Prostate exam, that's what it was. Lex could get through this.

After awhile, Clark added a second finger, pushing through the resistance. Lex closed his eyes tightly and tried hard to relax. He'd been through worse.

"Uh, Lex, Is this okay?" Clark's voice sounded unsure.

"Fine," Lex tried to keep the answer short.

Clark's other hand moved under Lex and stroked a deflated penis. "I don't think so..."

"That always happens on initial penetration -- it'll come back up." Lex hoped it would, at least.

There was a whoosh of air and Lex found himself flipped over onto his back, no hands in his rear, and a frowning Clark looking down at him. "Lex, if you don't want to..."

"I do!" Lex's heart sped up and then thumped wildly for both the want and the fear.

Clark blinked several times. He cocked his head as if listening to something, probably Lex's heartbeat, then he glanced over at the supplies and Lex could almost see him ticking off the items; bottle of lube -- brand new, the package of extra large condoms, also new, fresh washrags in the clean drawer, and Lex's nervousness. Clark looked back at Lex. "Lex, you... I mean, you." Clark's mouth hung open, a rather unattractive look on the Greek God.

Lex shut his eyes tightly in humiliation.

"You haven't? I mean... never?"

"Yes I have!" Lex snarled, his hands batting ineffectively at an unmoving chest.

Clark's mouth snapped shut and his eyes narrowed. "When was your last time with a guy?"

"Last month, at the Opera, between acts," Lex promptly replied.

Rolling his eyes, Clark settled down next to Lex, propped on his side. He took off the glove, tossing it on the floor, and ran his hand over Lex's chest, tracing the muscles, caressing him carefully. "Okay. When was your last time **bottoming**?" Clark's voice was accepting, yet firm. Lex could imagine him using that same voice on a restless horse, firmly getting the horse to go where **he** wanted him to go, and not where the horse wanted.

"Five nights ago," Lex fought to keep the upper hand, though he knew he'd already lost it, big time. If this was a business deal, the competitor would be buying him out right now.

"In real life, Lex." Clark's voice was still careful, but his eyes showed some of his exasperation.

Lex rolled over, presenting his back to Clark. Which may not have been the smartest of moves as that put him just in the position he didn't want to be in; he could feel Clark's erection poking him. But it was safer than looking at Clark. Lex bit his lip.

Clark stroked him gently, then pulled Lex back into his arms, cradling him. "It's okay," he soothed.

"I was fourteen," Lex finally admitted. It also hadn't been the world's best experience, even if had been his idea originally. However, he wasn't admitting **that** to anybody. Though Clark being Clark, he'd probably already figured it out. No matter what they said; no matter what **Lex** said, Clark wasn't really stupid.

There was no answer, at least not a verbal one. But Lex was held in strong arms, with a warm body tucked up to him, lips gentle upon his scalp. For a long time, silence was the rule, with soft movements of hands and lips, loving him carefully. Slowly, Lex relaxed for real.

"God, you're an idiot," Clark laughed softly, a note of bemusement instead of humor in the sound.

Lex...couldn't actually protest that statement. Not right now, at least. He clutched Clark's arm to him, close across Lex's chest and he swallowed his words, if not his pride. He thought his pride was in tatters right now, for all it had been through.

"And you call **me** a macho idiot? Super-stubborn, super-insane, super-delusional... You were just going to let me fuck you and pretend everything was all right?"

Lex ground his teeth. "I thought it **would** be okay." He shuddered, briefly, but made no move to disentangle himself from Clark's arms.

Behind him, Clark sighed. "Because this happens all the time in your dreams."

It wasn't really a question but Lex answered anyway. "Yes."

"Lex..." Clark paused and then sighed again, the air blowing silkily on Lex's head. "Stupid, stubborn ---"

"If you're just going to insult me, I'll leave." Lex didn't stir from his spot.

"Lex, it's your place." Clark's voice was laced with soft humor.

"I have other places." The Bahamas sounded good right now. Or Antarctica. There was a research station there Lex had been meaning to visit.

"God, I love you." Sincerity and truth dripped from every syllable. Clark's arms tightened around Lex, and he pressed another kiss upon Lex's head.

Lex sighed, wanting to be anywhere but here... and not wanting to move an inch.

"I **could** let you off easy; we back off to blowjobs or frottage," Clark mused. "Or I could let you fuck me."

In spite of the rather thorough deflating he'd just had, Lex's dick twitched in interest at the thought.

"But that would put us back at square one, I think." Clark shifted over and then rolled Lex so that Lex was on his back and Clark was looking down at him. Idly, Clark traced over Lex's body; running his fingers up and down Lex's arm, drawing a pattern on his abdomen.

Lex tried to ignore the fingers and summoned a deeper voice. "If we're negotiating, that last option might get you the most return." He reached out a hand of his own, tracing Clark's collarbone.

"I'm sure," Clark grinned at him. "I'm also sure, though, that somehow tomorrow you'd turn it all back on itself. You're not exactly the most rational person about this stuff, Lex. I give an inch and you'll take that as either rejection or capitulation. And while sex really **shouldn't** be part of it, somewhere in your warped brain, it is."

His lips curved upwards as Lex returned the grin. Finally, after all these years, Clark understood him. "So what are you going to do about it, Lover Boy," he purred. If he had heat vision like Clark, the room would be in danger of being singed. It wasn't that he didn't want the sex. He did. And if Clark thought he could do it...

" **You** are going to tell me some of your fantasies."

Lex raised his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't want the comparison.

Clark never lost his grin. "Oh, I don't think I have to worry about that so much anymore."

Real life was certainly different than fantasy. Lex wasn't sure if he didn't prefer the fantasy. Except... there might be awesome sex there, but it wasn't Clark, not really. "We could go into the dreamscape and have sex there."

"That, I think, would fall under the ‘capitulation' heading." Clark scooted down on the bed and picked up Lex's foot, rubbing it gently but not too light so it tickled. "Tell me about seducing innocent farmboys? More than one?"

"Well, Whitney was pretty cute..."

Clark dug in on a sensitive tendon and Lex yelped.

"Only you! Damn it, I have to walk on that foot."

"Baby." Clark grinned unrepentantly and worked on the toes. "My loft was replicated in a heck of a lot of detail... spend much time thinking about it?"

Lex gave in. "I came over after work, just to talk. Your mom said you were up in the loft, so I headed up there. As I crested the top of the stairs, there you were, spread out on your loft, mostly dressed, but with your pants unbuttoned and your hand pumping. Your head was thrown back, you didn't see me, didn't hear me. I stood frozen, watching. Everything I refused to think about there, in front of me." Lex paused as he imagined it in every detail. "You were sweating, drops gleaming off your skin, like I'd never seen even in the hottest sun. The sound of your breath gasping made my own start to match the rhythm. I could see pre-cum glistening. I wanted to go over and lick it off, but I was frozen still, afraid to move or it would all stop."

"Ah, we're still talking fantasy here, right?" Clark sounded nervous. "You didn't **really** walk in on me at some point, did you?"

Lex raised an eyebrow and looked over at Clark's slightly flushed face. "Well, that answers my question as to whether you actually used the loft for jerk-off sessions or saved it for your bedroom."

Clark blushed harder. "Well, loft up until my sophomore year, and then I had to stop it because between you and Lana it was starting to feel like grand central station up there."

"Everybody else left you alone?" Lex found that hard to believe. Of course, he'd also found it hard to believe Clark was one of the outcast dorks at his high school -- those cheekbones alone should have netted him a dozen women who wanted to go out with him.

"We lived in the middle of nowhere, Smallville-style. It took a car to get to us, and Pete and Chloe couldn't come over normally unless we arranged it. Though they both would, sometimes, it wasn't very often. However, Lana was close enough that she could ride over, and you..." Clark trailed off.

"I had cars," Lex finished smoothly. "I usually would say something before I came up, but you didn't always hear me."

"Well, same with your castle. I never could figure out why you didn't get a doorbell if you couldn't hear a knock on the door."

Lex's mouth quirked. "Now wouldn't Dad have just died at that... a doorbell on a castle. My housekeeping answered if they were there. And I got security, eventually."

"Sort-of. They never **did** anything." Clark picked up Lex's other foot and started working on it.

"They had orders to let you and yours through at any time."

"Me and mine?" Clark blinked. "What ‘mine'?"

"Your parents, Chloe, Pete, Lana, anybody else you happened to be hanging out with at the time. Though I did start teaching Chloe how to **really** break into a place after awhile. If you two were going to make a habit out of it, she might as well do it right instead of relying on my good graces." Lex hadn't bothered to try and teach Clark. Even back then he'd known it wouldn't do any good to offer.

Clark flushed. "Can we get back to the fantasy?"

"Ah, a standard Clark-deflection. Not quite a lie, but clumsy and awkward and somewhat endearing, if also aggravating." Lex had initially hated those, yet found he missed them when the deflections had turned instead to anger. It was interesting that one was coming out now.

Clark crawled up the bed. He leaned over and French-kissed Lex, pulling away only when Lex couldn't breathe. "Is that a better distraction?"

Lex eventually could talk again. "Much." He licked his lips, feeling Clark on him. He pulled Clark down for another round, starting to get very interested in the process again.

"Mmmm," Clark made a satisfied noise and pulled back slowly. With slow, sensuous movements, he inched his way down Lex's body, finally snuggling down with his head on Lex's chest, his body half-on, half-off the rest of him. Lex carded his fingers through Clark's hair.

"Shall I go on, or do you want a new one?"

"New one, please. How about Superman? Do you dream of him?"

"You mean you? Inclined to split-personality much?" Lex grinned a little.

Clark raised his head just enough to glare half-heartedly at Lex, then laid down again. "Asshole." Absently, he played with one of Lex's nipples with his fingers and then licked it.

Lex arched his back, pushing into the motions.

"Well?" Clark backed off, holding his hand just above Lex's chest.

The silence lasted for a bit while Lex thought about it. The problem was that Clark wouldn't actually **like** most of Lex's Superman fantasies. They tended to be violent, Superman losing control and forcing Lex, to Lex's delight usually. But Clark would be horrified. On the other hand, there were always the rescues.

"I was inspecting one of my factories, when a rival broke in to steal the designs. In the ensuing chaos, the gas ruptured. You swept in to save the day. You rescued the workers, and tossed the enemies to the police. Then you came back in to find me."

Clark shifted over, curving his arms protectively around Lex, tucking his legs along Lex's.

"I'd been knocked down and was woozy from partial exposure to the gas. When you scooped me up, you tucked me in close to you, draping your cape around me. Instead of dropping me off with the others, you flew away with me. We come to someplace... I don't even know where because the only thing I see, the only thing I know, is you. Your eyes are a pale blue but I don't fear them for the expression is soft and deep. You lay me down gently, stripping off your cape. Then you start in on my clothes, obstinately checking to see if I've been hurt. As the fabric comes off, your mouth follows, tracing the path of the shirt peeling away, kissing the pain away."

Clark licked Lex's neck, then nibbled his way gently across to the shoulder, then kissed down the arm. He held Lex's hand and sucked on the fingers one by one, robbing Lex of breath. When he finished with the last pinky, Clark grinned, "Do the pants come off as well?"

"Yes..." Lex closed his eyes as Clark moved to Lex's waist, tracing where a waistband would be, then following an invisible zipper slowly down. Lex had pretty much fully recovered from his earlier distraction and his dick was more than happy to be petted and stroked on the way down. A mouth would also have been nice. But Clark, evil incarnate that he was, continued on down the legs as if following a pair of pants. He ran his hands down the outside of Lex's legs, while tracking the path on the inside with his tongue, switching from leg to leg. Lex made small mewling sounds as he fought with himself not to buck up or thrash around. He clenched his hands in the blankets tightly.

When Clark finally made it down to the feet, Lex relaxed. It was still sensual as all hell, yet it wasn't pushing him over the brink. He breathed, feeling the sweat running off his skin.

Finishing with the toes, Clark looked up the length of Lex's body, meeting Lex's gaze with a wicked grin. "Roll over."

"Humm?" Lex wasn't quite ready for full sentences.

"I need to make sure you weren't hurt on your back. You know, inspect for shrapnel and all that."

Lex thought about correcting the assumptions -- in the fantasy he'd been weaving, there wasn't any shooting or explosions. Then he shook his head at himself and rolled over.

Clark made his way back up, retracing his steps from toe to waist. There was a bit of tension as he got to Lex's ass, however Lex found he didn't mind so much, knowing it was Clark. Clark didn't linger there, continuing matter-of-factly on up the back. Lingering did occur on Lex's neck, turning Lex into a quivering pile of goo on the mattress before Clark moved on to Lex's head, raining kisses down upon his scalp.

After Lex's head was as thoroughly loved as the rest of him, the warm body performing the attention left. When he could, Lex rolled over and looked around.

Standing next to the bed, Clark was watching him with a hungry eye. When Lex met his gaze, he smiled. "Okay, no wounds. New story."

"I don't really like the sound of my own voice **that** much..." Lex grumbled from his boneless sprawl.

Lex found his hands caught in larger ones and he was tugged gently to join Clark standing next to the bed.

"But I do." Interlacing their fingers, Clark brought their hands up between them, chest to chest. "The pool table. Give me one about the pool table." There was an eager note within the rumbling voice.

"You've been thinking about this, haven't you?"

"Since the first night," Clark admitted. "Mostly jealous of the fantasies, but also wondering about chances missed." He hesitated. "I've rescued you plenty of times; I wish now..."

Lex shook his head, "I'd kick your ass if you stopped in the middle of a rescue for something like that."

Clark grinned. "Not actually what I meant." He leaned over to kiss Lex tenderly before deepening the kiss to passion. Unlacing their hands, Clark pulled Lex in, stroking up and down his back.

Willingly, Lex returned the kiss and the caresses.

"So..." Clark whispered in Lex's ear. "About the pool game."

With a laugh, Lex turned away and walked to his dresser. He ran his hand over the top and then leaned over, looking for a shot. "I'm lining up, checking my angles. When I straighten up," Lex did so and glanced over at Clark. The green eyes were molten as Clark avidly watched his every move. "I see you watching me. And not watching my hands."

Clark licked his lips.

"I decide to test this, to push it a bit further." Lex walked to a different dresser, passing Clark close enough so they brushed. "I choose a different shot. This one takes me close to you, on your side of the table. I lean over, with my cue stick out. This one is a more difficult shot. I ask you to come over and look."

Mesmerized, Clark came over to him, standing behind him close but not touching.

"See this shot? The other one, while easy to make, would have left the cue ball in a bad position for another other move. This shot, if it goes in, will position me to make several others. What angle would you take?"

Clark leaned over Lex, his chest touching Lex's back, his mouth close to Lex's ear. "I see it. And I'll take this one." He pressed forward, his erection rubbing on Lex's ass.

Lex caught his breath and pushed back, his vision wobbling in his eyes. He couldn't tell if he saw the pool table or the dresser.

Nibbling along the edges of Lex's ear, Clark used his body to gently push Lex further down on the dresser. His hands went down to Lex's hips, one circling in front to both stroke Lex and to provide protection against the dresser. "You might have been teasing, but this game, you taught me well, and I want my prize. I toss the cue stick to one side, and breathe upon the table. The balls roll out of the way."

"Clark..." Lex shut his eyes, not seeing anything, only feeling the body pressing on him, the hands fingering him, the pool table beneath him. For a brief moment, it all seemed to vanish and he was swirling in nothingness. Then everything was back again and Clark was pressing a gloved finger in him, coated with warm lubrication. Lex moaned and pushed back slightly, not fighting it, caught between his fantasies and his reality.

"Spread out over the pool table, you're beautiful. Your clothes are gone, I've taken care of that, and it's like nothing I've seen. You always keep yourself covered, with those long-sleeved shirts I both love and hate. Every inch of your body, except when you get careless, or when there's been an accident. Now, though -- now it's all gone. Just your smooth skin, covering your lean muscles and showing your ribs, your spine, your vulnerability and your strength." Clark shifted himself along Lex's back, rubbing up and down.

Under him, Lex also moved, lost in the feeling of their skin along skin. Clark's finger explored deeper in him and he welcomed it. The dresser was hard under him, items moved out of the way he didn't know when or how. He was trapped between two immobile surfaces, friction burning him rapturously.

"As beautiful as your body is, it's nothing compared to your spirit. That marvelous, shining beacon that draws us moths to you to bask in your light and try to get closer to you." Clark moved his front hand from Lex's cock up his stomach and chest, pulling him into Clark, even as Clark pushed down. A mild burn let him know another finger had joined the first.

It was hard to breathe, and yet didn't hurt at all, the pressure making Lex wish they didn't have bodies and really could just merge together. He turned his head, cheek against the wood, and responded as best he could. "Those words, for you. Yours the light. Not me. You."

Clark chuckled, "I'll tease you about the grammar later. You may not believe in your light, and I might have forgotten about it, but I see it now, and I want it." Clark's voice, already low, dropped to gravel beds, "I want you."

Lex closed his eyes and wasn't sure what he'd say. All words were interrupted, though, as Clark's fingers inside him brushed up against something that made him stiffen and scream in surprise. He almost came right there, except Clark disappeared from him, the loss overwhelming the pleasure.

"Lex? Did I hurt you?"

Lex didn't answer, boneless and missing the warmth. He found himself picked up and laid gently upon the bed, a concerned face hovering over him when he opened his eyes.

The concern turned into amazement and then amusement. "You silly idiot. What was all that ‘you're missing my prostate' about the other time if you've never experienced it before?"

"I have," Lex protested, twitching a hand experimentally just to see if he could move.

Clark snorted and then leaned over to kiss him. "I love you," he whispered as he pulled back.

"Women. I let women play there if they're inclined to. It just... It's not usually that intense."

"We'll have to do it again, then." Clark laid down on the bed next to Lex and urged Lex to roll to his side so they were facing each other. He kissed Lex again, deeply, not stopping until they were both panting.

At some point during the kiss, Clark's fingers had made their way back inside Lex and they found that spot again. Lex cried out again, involuntarily. He bucked forward and bit down hard on his lip, drawing blood.

Clark licked it off. "Easy. No pain for us. No need to hold back, don't try and hide from me." His fingers moved again.

"Clark," Lex moaned, drawn into the strong arms, living his fantasy.

"I'm here. We're both here. Lex..." Clark's voice was breathless, words coming between short breaths, his green eyes dark with lust and need. "Lex. Lex."

It took an effort of will more from his scattered focus than from any fear, yet Lex was able to draw a knee up, over Clark's thighs, pulling himself into a half-curl. "Yes."

"God." Clark disappeared for a moment and the world paused as Lex heard a new condom being torn open, the other ripped and lost somewhere in the past.

Lex rolled onto his back and brought both legs up. He was trembling, not quite sure if it was from anticipation of pleasure or pain.

Suddenly there again, Clark knelt between his legs, with even more lube dripping down as Clark pumped himself and made ready. "Lex," Clark's voice trembled but was commanding despite that, "Look at me."

Lex met the dark green eyes, not knowing what he did.

"Do you trust me?"

That... was unexpected. Lex blinked, his mind darting through dozens of images, of memories, of feelings. "Yes," he whispered. Even when he hated Clark, even when Clark hated him, even when Clark was self-righteously hurting Lex, Lex had never stopped trusting Clark. Trust had nothing to do with anything else, and he trusted Clark more than anything else in the world.

As Lex's body relaxed with the answer, Clark moved forward, pushing into him, pausing periodically to let Lex adjust. Lex closed his eyes and let himself experience the sensations. No fear, not with Clark. It wasn't a fantasy, it was Clark, and this... this was incredible. It did hurt, a little, but more it filled him with everything he'd never let himself believe. The physical wasn't even the whole of it. Though his body cried out for more.

More. Reaching between them, in the hollows between the angles, Lex grabbed himself, tugging on his neglected dick, pleasure spiking into him from betwixt and between.

Clark grunted and pulled mostly out and thrust in again, a look of concentration falling over his face, his eyes hidden behind closed lids. Lex reached his free hand up to touch Clark's face wonderingly. With an obvious effort of will, Clark opened his eyes again, pleasure muddling the normally sharp gaze. Lex wondered what his own looked like.

"Mine," Clark said roughly as he thrust repeatedly into Lex's body, age old motions in play. He shifted to change the angle.

As the pleasure spiked through him, Lex answered not in words but in sound and release, opening the whole of himself to Clark. He tilted up to meet Clark's thrusts, his hands wrapping around Clark's body and anchoring himself to him. Despite the abandonment, his dick didn't feel lonely, pressed as it was against Clark's belly, hitting the warm hard-soft surface of skin over and over again.

Other than the one word, Clark's vocabulary seemed to have dissolved into mostly grunts. Lex's were moans and gasps but mostly the same. Their eyes kept meeting between thrusts and then one or the other would drop eyelids, heavy with pleasure, before need drove them open again to see and connect.

It was at one of those moments, where they were watching each other, when Lex tipped across the edge. Not even at a spike of pleasure, not even with the end of a thrust, but simply all of it combined, with Clark's green eyes boring into his own, knowing **him** , loving him... All of the sounds Lex had been making stopped as he shuddered all over and stiffened. Love, desire, adoration flowed out of him as he fell into a bit of the darkness around him, light bending out around them, flares of neurons bursting.

There was a gasp from above him, but barely a pause before Clark kept up his rhythm, going faster, hitting harder.

Incapable of thought, Lex watched through lidded eyes, the body before him moving up and down in his gaze. He could feel Clark inside of him, even as he watched the outside of Clark moving. His arms still clutched Clark, though Lex couldn't say how he was holding on, as empty as he was. There was only Clark. Only...

Clark stiffened and let his breath out in not-quite a cry. He held his pose above Lex for several seconds before his eyelids dropped and his body relaxed. Clark didn't fall. His arms relaxed, his head dropped down, his body went into boneless mode, but Lex wasn't crushed and there were still several inches of space between them, and increasing.

Blinking in surprise, Lex tugged with his grip on Clark and watched in fascination as Clark's body floated back to Lex and then started drifting away again. He repeated this a couple of times before Clark's eyes opened and blinked back at him, sleepily.

"Lex?"

"I have my own bouncy ball..." Lex pulled at Clark again, but conscious now, Clark's body responded more appropriately to gravity and he didn't float. He stiffened his arms so he didn't fall on Lex, and he pulled slowly out, hissing slightly as he did so. Lex closed his eyes, his nerves alert to the sensations, his mind cataloging them and comparing them with a portion of his thoughts, even as he tried not to do so much thinking.

The sound of a condom being tied and tossed in a wastebasket roused his attention, and Lex rolled over to see which one Clark had aimed at. "I don't suppose you'd want to put that in the refrigerator?"

Returning with a washcloth and wiping them both off, Clark snorted. "I'll get you a fresh sample later." His mouth quirked as he stared down at Lex. "My little mad scientist..."

"Not that little," Lex automatically rejoined as his mind contemplated the problem. He only had maids in once a week, and they had the highest credentials, but trusting them with his life was one thing, trusting them with Clark's was quite another. Maybe he could make a small auto-incinerator instead of a waste-basket and call it a foray into waste reduction. Of course, there was still hair and sweat and other particles that Clark would leave. The other option was Lex could learn to vacuum his own damn room. He actually did know how, he just hated taking the time for it.

"My frustratingly intelligent mad scientist, with a hundred different thoughts and plans and ideas that don't ever stop." Clark nuzzled Lex's neck, nibbling on his collarbone and petting him soothingly over his body. Lex didn't know where the washcloth had gone.

Lex met Clark's gaze, trying to think of an apology or something at all to say.

A finger rested over his lips and then were replaced by warmer lips. His body relaxed the tension Lex hadn't even known he'd built up as he returned the kiss.

As the kiss ended, Lex asked on its retreat, "You're not angry?"

"That would be like being mad at the ocean for the waves. I'll save being angry at you for things you choose wrongly." Clark stood up again then picked Lex up, lifting him effortlessly, ignoring Lex's squawk of protest. Cradling Lex against him with one arm, Clark flipped back the covers on the bed with the other. He then laid Lex back down on the clean sheets.

Lex promptly rolled over and got out of bed on the other side from Clark. "I'm going to the bathroom," he announced, then flushed as he realized how childish that sounded. Still, he kept his movements sure and steady as he walked away. Except for a slight limp and wince he couldn't help at the first stride.

Clark didn't follow, and Lex took his time in the bathroom, cleaning himself with the bidet and laughing a little at his previous fears. Even the after-effects weren't as bad as he'd worried about, and the experience itself rivaled his dreams. It really did come down to trust, though. Clark was the only person in the world he would let that close, both body and soul. If they had met later in his life, Lex would probably have already built his walls and not let anybody in. If had been earlier... well, a teen-aged Lex wasn't really something that **anybody** trusted except for a good time. Club Zero had been what he was. Now? Lex wasn't really sure what he was anymore. His world had just been turned upside down, and even if he wanted to go back to the way things were, it had just been rather thoroughly demonstrated to him that it wouldn't be allowed. And while he wanted to resent that on principle... he really didn't.

Walking back out gave Lex the reason. Clark was sprawled out in Lex's bed, his tall frame taking most of the room, the covers draped over him for shape and form and desire and imagination of the senses. The thick black hair was untidy and rumpled, twisted into shapes not known to man. The green eyes were jade and fluorite, emerald and malachite, watching him languidly yet possessively. Lex had to stop just to watch, it was so beautiful.

Clark lifted a corner of the covers next to him invitingly. Lex was drawn to it like gravity to a black hole and he went. Curling up under sheets and blankets, flesh against flesh, arms around him, head tucked against his, breath warm on his skin.

Long minutes went by while Lex cuddled next to Clark. He kept his eyes closed and listened to Clark's breathing, feeling his heart beat beneath the skin. Sleep was there, right around the corner, beckoning to him. Yet Lex didn't want to fall asleep. Always before, sleep meant the dissolution of the dream. Gone like fairy twinkling lights. No matter how solid and real they felt at the moment, they never lasted through the night. Lex didn't want to lose this.

"Lex, I'm here." Clark's kiss was warm upon his head. "Go to sleep."

Reluctantly, Lex did so.

... ... ...

 

Ten minutes before his alarm clock was set to ring, Lex woke up. Depending on what he'd been doing the night before and how tired he was, coming to consciousness could either be a slow tide rising up the sand, or a tidal wave sweeping through. This time, it started off slowly, but as soon as he was awake enough to register the warm body he was lying on top of and the arm around his waist, awareness slammed into him and he sat up abruptly, dislodging the arm.

Next to him, Clark also sat up, looking around with narrowed eyes, scanning the room and outside. When he didn't find anything, Clark's gaze drifted to Lex. "What's wrong?"

Lex couldn't find any words. He studied Clark, watching the covers pool around the bare chest, the eyes shading back to their normal green, the black hair sticking up in odd clumps on one side and flattened on the other. He breathed in the smell of sex from the night before -- musk and sweat and semen.

Clark's eyes narrowed, "Don't tell me you thought last night was a dream." He huffed and leaned over to kiss Lex. "I'm real," he whispered into Lex's lips.

Dreams didn't have morning breath. Or bed-head. Or lines from where the sheets had been pressed into skin. Lex stared at that last for awhile, trying to figure out how a person could be both invulnerable and subject to pressure lines. Finally he remembered to answer, "It wouldn't have been that unthinkable... except I've never woken up next to a fantasy before."

Eyebrows rose and then fell again in comprehension. Clark smiled -- an achingly familiar sweet sight. "Then I guess I'll just have to wake up next to you as often as I can."

Clark pulled Lex back into his arms, snuggling him close. "This reality is better than a dream, and I'll keep proving that to you every day until we die."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Lex ordered, even as his mouth twitched up in a grin. Clark would have to get pretty inventive to match some of Lex's fantasies. Though he didn't really need to. Waking up and still having Clark smile at him was already proof and promise, as much as Lex needed.

Clark's response was in his kiss, and they lay back down upon the bed together, promising to each other without words what the rest of their future would be.

* * *

  


.

  


END

**Author's Note:**

> \- Awesome incredible thanks to Ronda for beta'ing this... it was a huge story to beta, and it's not even her fandom! o.o She gets the best beta EVER award. :)
> 
> **Author Notes:**   
>  Sometimes the characters make reference to common-day scifi geekery. Such as Princess Bride and quoting Douglas Adams. "Brain the size of a planet" is a reference to Marvin the Paranoid Android. ^^ And um yes, ' You're not the original Lois and Clark.' - I couldn't help myself. ;p
> 
> I also, {cough} sometimes throw in bits from other areas because I read a lot and it creeps in. I try as much as I can to make it my writing but I can't avoid it completely. I'll try and reference areas I know I've gotten bits from:  
> \- "Lex wondered bitterly how messed up this was going to get. When everything was right... there was usually something wrong." Red Dwarf. Rimmer in the VR machine. But I rather thought that it would happen a lot to poor Lex too. His real life hasn't exactly gone all that smoothly and I think he wouldn't always believe a perfect fantasy.  
> \- stepping into a holographic world; diagrams, wiring, labels, maps, routes," {cough} Tron. {cough} Hey, I was young enough to *like* it. ;p And well, yes, Snow Crash and every other mixed VR world books since then. Not strictly a new idea.  
> \- "Think of this world as a lesser mass world, similar to a light-weight gravity planet." As much as I'd love to take credit for this one, it's totally Richard Purtill in 'The Golden Gryphon Feather' as he explained the idea of Greek Gods and Earth, though he used hot pots near fire since it was a more ancient world he was explaining it to. It was a beautiful wonderful idea and it's stuck with me forever. Here, it just seemed the most appropriate and best way for what was happening.  
> 
> 
> * * *
> 
> Note about the "next stories". This was originally a single story, Beyond the Veil, which was whole and complete on its own. This was never supposed to be a series. You can read Beyond the Veil as a single entity and be satisfied with it. ^^ However, when I put it out there, it proved to be popular, and I had frequent requests for more stories or timestamps (little ficlets showing snapshots in time) showing what happened after. As a result, more ficlets have been added to the universe. I don't really consider them to be in a "series" as such, however it's a little hard in the AO3 to figure out what exactly to call them. This is really a single primary story with a lot of sequels in the same universe, but it's not an ongoing series as such.


End file.
